My Carol Academia
by alienyouthct
Summary: Carol Danvers manages to keep extraordinarily busy helping ensure the peace on the hundreds of worlds in the Milky Way galaxy that don't have the Avengers to watch over them. The last thing she needs is to find herself pulled through a rift back to Earth... and it's not her Earth.
1. Chapter 1

Title: _My Carol Academia  
_Author: JoeHundredaire  
Rating: PG-13/FR15  
Disclaimer: With a myriad of writers, artists, and editors, actual rights are a nightmare when you go near a comic book universe. Suffice it to say that Marvel Entertainment LLC owns all of the property printed in their comics, along with the television and movie adaptations of said same property. Compared to that, the ownership of _My Hero Academia_ is relatively simple: the entire thing belongs to Kōhei Horikoshi. Not mine, don't sue, and so forth and so on.  
Summary: Carol Danvers manages to keep extraordinarily busy helping ensure the peace on the hundreds of worlds in the Milky Way galaxy that don't have the Avengers to watch over them. The last thing she needs is to find herself pulled through a rift back to Earth... and it's not her Earth.  
Joe's Note: I originally conceived this back when we were seeing _Spider-Man: Far From Home_ commercials that played up the multiversal aspects of the story. While the movie was a bit of a disappointment on that front - and that's as much as I'll say to avoid spoiling people who haven't seen it - the idea of Blip-related rifts opening in space/time stayed with me and... well, this story was born. I actually played with ideas for a half-dozen different Marvel characters falling through the rift before deciding that Carol was a bit more flexible in terms of characterization and personality because we know comparatively little about her. Haven't decided whether or not there will be any shipping in this, although I'm kinda partial to Carol and Himiko for some odd reason...  
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Jade, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Clark, Adrien, erlking, ridillin, Haematite, Charles, Jacky, Edward, Andrew, Roofcrawler, Wil, PbookR, Samuel, Mikey, Beverly, Daniel, Charles, Crygon20, Subtle, Christopher, Stephen, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Joseph, Jason, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Marc, Ziryo, Chris, George, Koby, William, Devin, JJbelle, David, Gavin, TheTenthAncestor, Lookshy, Mauday, John, Roman, Warren, and Jess for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

* * *

...and then she was through the strange, rippling red rift and could breathe again, sucking in great gasps of oxygen as her trembling body drifted through the air. While she didn't strictly need it anymore, she definitely wasn't going to turn it down... and it did help put a finger on her current location. She was on a planet. Somewhere. Which she hadn't been mere moments before. Then Carol Danvers opened her eyes, whipping her head back and forth as she took in her surroundings. She was... back on Earth?

Maybe not. She'd visited plenty of inhabited planets over the course of the past thirty years, and a striking number of them bore some degree of resemblance to Earth. There were only so many ways a civilization could build a building, after all. But she definitely wasn't in deep space anymore, on her way to visit the Skrull on their new homeworld. Which was where she was supposed to be. Which in turn made her current location concerning.

The past year or so after the reversal of Thanos's Snap and the decisive battle against the Titan's time-displaced alter ego had been strangely quiet. Nature supposedly abhorred a vacuum and so Carol would have thought that someone - or multiple weaker someones - would have tried to step into the void created by Thanos's defeat, but the Milky Way galaxy had seemed largely content to just take a breather and recover from what happened. The only real cause for concern had been the appearance of strange rifts in space/time, an unforeseen side effect of using all six of the Infinity Stones together twice in rapid succession. Carol hadn't really paid the discussions of them any mind, figuring that they were a problem for more terrestrial heroes and the civilians they protected.

Evidently not.

An explosion off to her left drew Carol's attention and she raised an eyebrow. While there was always a chance that it was some sort of cultural celebration like that Exploding Hammer Festival that she and Maria had attended in San Juan de la Vega... generally speaking, explosions were a sign that something bad was happening. And wherever she was - and for whatever reason - Carol wasn't about to pass up the chance to help people in their hour of need.

Calling forth her power enough to sheathe herself in a corona of golden energy, Carol sailed through the air toward the site of the explosions, eyes narrowing as she grew close enough to the ground to start picking out signage and advertisements. Whether she was on Earth or another inhabited planet, they definitely didn't speak English or Kree. Summoning the seldom-used cowl of her Starforce armor, she frowned as the HUD informed her that there was a positive match for a language on Planet C-35 and began translating things for her. So she was back on Earth, albeit a Japanese-speaking portion of it. Curiouser and curiouser.

Another massive explosion rocked what her HUD informed her was the Tatooin Shopping district, sending roiling clouds of oily black smoke billowing skyward as she decelerated and began drifting over the rooftops. Her eyes swept back and forth quickly as she flew, trying to pin down the source of the chaos. Unfortunately, the smoke was already thick and terrified citizens were running every which way in the chaos, making it harder to... there was a bright pop of light, and Carol's eyes narrowed. There! Dropping down into the artificial canyon between two buildings, she tilted her head to the side as she observed the scene in front of her.

There was a slime monster. There was a slime monster trying to eat a teenage boy, or at the very least envelop or trap him within its body. A slime monster doing something to a teenage boy. Carol counted three men in ridiculous outfits facing off against the slime monster, a fourth doing his best to fight the fires that had sprung up around the area, and... a giant woman with a great ass who seemed to be unable to reach the battle? So possibly someone with Scott's powers but far less experience and control, someone who could shoot water, and three more heroes whose powers were unknown but clearly not up to the task of subduing the slime monster. Alright. She could work with that.

Angling herself downward, Carol drew closer to the confrontation as she evaluated her options, forming and discarding plans as she watched the other heroes dodge thick tendrils of slime. At the risk of being arrogant, there was no way this monster could possibly hit as hard as Thanos, and she'd taken him on in his prime. With multiple Infinity Stones under his command, even. She obviously couldn't punch him into submission, she quickly realized, watching the bulky blue-clad hero try at that tactic and fail miserably. Thankfully, her prodigious strength wasn't the only power she had at her disposal.

"It's no use! There's no one who can take care of this at the scene right now!"

"All we can do is wait for someone with a more suitable Quirk."

Assuming her translator was doing its job adequately, that was as good a cue as any for her to make her entrance. And then a green-haired teen - green? - in a uniform that matched the hostage broke free of the crowd, charging toward the tableau and hastening the need for her to get involve. Dropping down into the alley between the hapless heroes and their opponent, Carol reached out and deftly grabbed the greenette around the waist, spinning and redirecting his charging form back where it had come from. "Appreciate the enthusiasm, kid, but let the heroes handle this one."

Carol paused for a moment, staring off into space as the kid went stumbling back into the crowd. There was something wrong... with her voice. And... she glanced down. Her arms. And legs. Her body wasn't right. The rift had done more to her than just transport her back to Earth. Wait. Focus, she decided. Defeat the villain now. Take stock of herself later. Figuring out what was going on with her body could wait. Saving the poor boy in the slime monster's clutches couldn't.

Turning back to face her new opponent, Carol dropped to one knee and brought both of her arms up as she lined up her shots. Her tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated, brow furrowing. Too close together and she would blast the unlucky boy whose only sin was to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and been taken hostage. Too far apart and she would just shave off the edges of the slime monster and leave him intact enough to remain a threat. And then she fired, unleashing twin barrages of photonic energy at the slime monster. "Fire in the hole!"

The impact was all that she'd hoped for and more. The monster let out a bellow of pain as its body mass warped and then disintegrated under the barrage, causing it to recoil out of instinct and release the teenager it had been holding. Launching herself forward, Carol grabbed the boy's hand and repeated the same maneuver that she'd used on the wannabe hero, tossing the hostage in the direction of her fellow heroes even as she used her free hand to unleash a followup photon blast that gouged another great chunk out of the monster's body mass. And then for good measure, she took a page from Bruce Banner's book and brought her hands together in a titanic clap, sending a wave of compressed air racing forward that slammed into the slime monster's body mass and splattered what remained of it across the alley walls.

That was... about as difficult as Carol had expected, which was to say not very. She watched the slime drip down the walls for a few seconds, wanting to make sure that it wasn't attempting to reconstitute itself for another attack, before letting out a sigh and turning to face the hostage and her fellow heroes. Then she tilted her head back a bit, peering up at the merrily burning buildings on either side of her. "We should probably get somebody to do something about that, huh?" The four people in front of her just stared at her uncomprehendingly, and Carol rolled her eyes before tapping at the control screen, engaging the translation capabilities of her armor. "I said, we should probably get somebody to do something about that, huh? You know, before the buildings burn down? Or the fire spreads to other buildings?"

Rather than displaying the sort of discipline and competence that Carol had come to expect from working with the Avengers and their various allies, the three heroes who weren't already actively fighting the fire continued to stand there and stare at her. Finally, just as Carol was about to turn away and try to aid the firefighter-themed hero herself, the giant woman shrank herself down and made her way over to join them. "Not that I mind a little bit more girl power, but I don't recognize you. Not that I'm a hero otaku or anything, but I'd like to think that I'd be familiar with someone as powerful as you. What agency are you signed with?"

Carol arched an eyebrow at. "I'm pretty much a free agent. Sometimes I work with the Avengers when our interests align. Helped Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy out of a jam two or three months ago. Why?"

"I've never heard of an agency called the 'Avengers', or one known as the 'Guardians of the Galaxy'. And you don't work for a hero agency yourself? That's impossible. Every hero works for one agency or another, from the lowliest sidekick to All Might himself. It's how you get paid." Exchanging an unreadable look with the size-shifter, the wooden man stepped forward and looked Carol up and down slowly. Given that he either had a face made of wood or was wearing a well-crafted wooden mask, it was hard to make out any sort of facial expression but he seemed distinctly suspicious to Carol. "You are a professional hero, right? Licensed and everything?"

Heroes were licensed here? Had she missed something really important in the past twelve months while she was busy visiting other planets? Was this a new twist on the 'Sokovia Accords' that Rhodey had mentioned back when she first returned to Earth? No, she decided, he'd mentioned registration but nothing about licenses or hero agencies or getting paid. It all spoke of a hero population far too significant to have miraculously sprung up in the short span of time that she'd been gone, and Carol suddenly found herself beset by the sinking suspicion that the rift that she'd passed through had done more than just hurl her all the way back to Earth. Or rather... her Earth. "Not... exactly."

As emergency response vehicles finally began to arrive on the scene, police vans blocking off one end of the alley as fire trucks clustered around the other, the size-shifting heroine chuckled before reaching up to rub the back of her head nervously. "Well, at least I'm not going to be the one in trouble this time..."


	2. Chapter 2

Joe's Note: If you notice similarities to anyone else's fanfics with the next chapter or two, it's unintentional but wholly unavoidable. The Musutafu area police department isn't terribly built up in either the anime or the manga, requiring those of us who use them to either reinvent the wheel each time or scavenge from each other when we write. With that said? If you haven't read _Friendly Foreign Dimensional Exchange Student Spiderman!_ by Zaru yet, go give it a read. Out of the multitude of _Spider-Man_/_My Hero Academia_ crossovers out there, it's easily the best one that I've read so far... and I have enough free time at work that I'm pretty sure that I've read all the ones worth reading.  
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Jade, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Clark, Adrien, erlking, ridillin, Haematite, Charles, Jacky, Edward, Andrew, Roofcrawler, Wil, PbookR, Samuel, Mikey, Beverly, Daniel, Charles, Crygon20, Subtle, Christopher, Stephen, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Joseph, Jason, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Marc, Ziryo, Chris, George, Koby, William, Devin, JJbelle, David, Gavin, TheTenthAncestor, Lookshy, Mauday, John, Roman, Warren, and Jess for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

* * *

Humming softly to herself as she hovered a few inches above the uncomfortable metal folding chair they'd given her in the interrogation room, Carol ran her fingers over the gauntlet-mounted computer that was part of her Starforce armor and ran the tracking algorithm again. Yet again, it came back with the same result: she was the only source of Infinity Stone-related energy in the general vicinity. Considering that they hadn't taken her too far from the scene of her 'crime' to get to a police station, the point where she'd entered their reality should still be within range of her suit's sensors. Should still register on said sensors as a source of Infinity Stone-related energy, presumably the Reality and Space Stones at a minimum.

It wasn't.

Which meant one of two things.

One: the sensors in her suit were damaged and would require repairs that she didn't have the resources and knowledge to affect.

Two: the rift had sealed itself back up after spitting her out, meaning that she was stuck here.

Carol wasn't entirely sure which of those two options was the greater evil.

As far as places to be stuck went, this world wasn't terrible. It wasn't a world without shrimp, or a world where the Nazis won World War II, or a world where the Snap hadn't been reversed. It did seem a bit... stunted for being significantly in the future from her perspective; same old cars and cell phones and computers as when she'd left. Her vintage 90s Kree armor was quite possibly the most advanced technology on the planet, as best she could tell from an admittedly limited sample size. But again, it could be worse. A lot worse.

Continuing to navigate through her new reality's version of the comparatively primitive - from a Kree's perspective, at least - Internet, Carol raised an eyebrow as she found herself staring at... hero rankings? Evidently here, the _Billboard_ magazine wasn't just content to rank popular music for the masses, they also ranked heroes. Topping the list was a massive blonde man named All Might, followed by Endeavor, Hawks, and... Best Jeanist? Carol bit her lip to avoid laughing at the sight of a man wearing nothing but denim, including a cowl made out of what looked like the waistband of a pair of pants. This world was certainly... creative... when it came to heroes' powers and identity, she would give it that.

Continuing onward, Carol made her way past names like 'Edgeshot' and 'Gang Orca', and then even further past the 'Wild, Wild Pussycats' as she slowly scrolled all the way to the end of the abridged list of the top fifty heroes in Japan. Unsurprisingly, there wasn't a single familiar name on the list. She hadn't expected as much, really, but she'd hoped to discover that at least some of her friends existed in this world and had legacy heroes continuing the good fight for them. Maybe she just needed to check the American version of the list? Judging by how different this world was proving to be? Probably not.

What to do, what to do? The rift was gone, but she wasn't without options. Her suit had been able to connect to some version of the Kree mainframe when she tried, meaning that she could always flee for the familiar comforts of the Empire if she wanted. Especially given that here, she hadn't burned that particular bridge by waging war against them on the Skrulls' behalf. Speaking of which, if the Kree existed here, there was a good chance that the Skrull likewise did. She could seek out her erstwhile allies, maybe help them rise up against their Kree oppressors all over again. Assuming, of course, that things had unfolded similarly in this reality.

But while she could do those things... what should she do? No matter where she went, she'd essentially be reestablishing herself from scratch. She owed no loyalty to anyone or anything in this reality; she was a stranger in a strange land. Would it really be so bad to take the Boy Scout-approved path and hug a metaphorical tree? Stay here, wait to see if anyone managed to respond to the distress call that she'd sent as she plunged through the rift, and spend the intervening time helping clean up the super-powered crime that evidently pervaded this world?

...with her impressive powers, it would be impossibly easy to climb her way into the top ten of the Hero Billboard Chart.

...wait. What would her superhero name be? Even after nearly thirty years of fighting the good fight and protecting the helpless, she'd somehow managed to avoid going by anything other than Carol Danvers.

...and what would her descriptor be? Endeavor was the Flame Hero and All Might was the Symbol of Peace. What would that make her?

...what would she claim her quirk was?

Wanting to distract herself, Carol began digging through the Internet in search of more information about the All Might fellow who seemed to be so popular in this version of Japan. Thanks to some of the algorithms that she'd 'liberated' from her Skrull allies and later the Avengers, brute forcing her way into restricted databases was almost laughably easy and she slowly began to assemble a fuller picture of the Symbol of Peace. At the same time, the more she learned about him, the more questions formed in her head. There was something about him that just... didn't add up.

There was a knock on the interrogation room door and then it swung open to reveal her third interrogator of her stay. Carol was honestly getting rather tired of repeating herself but since she wasn't going to punch her way out of custody or anything, it was a necessary evil. Dropping down to sit in her chair properly, she cleared the holograms hovering over her forearm with a wave of her hand. "So, now who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?"

"My name is Fukuda Botan and I am the police chief of this precinct." Carol raised an eyebrow as he sat down opposite her at the table and opened a folder; finally, she was getting somewhere. "You've told my men a very interesting story, Miss Danvers. Surely you can understand why we're hesitant to believe it."

Carol cocked her head to one side as she gestured to the papers that Fukuda was slowly spreading across the table in front of him. They were obviously reports of some kind and based on the fact that they were done in at least two distinctly different handwritings, she could only assume that they were the result of her earlier questioning. "C'mon, you live in a world where eighty percent of the population has some sort of superpower. How weird is the idea that I'm an alien from outer space who also has powers?"

Coughing into his hand, Fukuda peered over the top of his glasses at her. "Well, for starters this would be our first contact with life from another planet. At least as far as I know. There's also the fact that you look strikingly similar to a human for someone who's trying to use an intergalactic origin as an excuse for violating several quirk usage laws."

"To be fair, it's been a while since the Kree have visited C-35. Anyone who might have met one of my kind would be long since dead by now." Carol reached up, running one hand through her hair as she stared at him in exasperation. "As for looking human? I don't suppose you're a _Star Trek_ fan? Convergent evolution, Infinite diversity in infinite conversations, and all that?" Fukuda looked distinctly unimpressed with her and Carol rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'm only half-Kree. My father was a human named Joseph Danvers and my mother was a Kree champion named Mari-Ell. That said, Kree look almost identical to humans on the outside. Except for the fact that they're blue, that is. Which wouldn't be that out of place on Earth these days from what I've seen, would it?"

Fukuda peered down at his assembled notes again for several seconds, as if the papers held some great secret or answer, before finally looking back up at her. "At the end of the day, you could be telling a rather astonishing truth or an extraordinarily convoluted lie. Who you are, where you're from, and where you go after we're done with you aren't my problem. The fact that you broke the law in my precinct is. Given the nature of the incident, normally we'd be willing to sweep your quirk usage under the rug. That Bakugo lad, for instance, isn't going to be charged for any of the damage that he caused while trying to escape the villain. But while such things are obviously at our discretion, I'm reluctant to grant you any sort of leniency because you show absolutely no remorse for having broken the law today."

Carol let out a faint snort at that, leaning back and stretching her arms over her head as she stared at the older man incredulously. "That's because I absolutely don't regret what I did to end up in here. None of the heroes on the scene were equipped to save that boy. I was. So I did. That's what heroes do."

That earned her a raised eyebrow from Fukuda on the other side of the table. "So you see yourself as a hero already, then? Despite your utter lack of qualifications or certification?"

"The Kree are a race of noble warrior heroes. It's literally in my blood." How Carol managed to keep a straight face through reciting the lie that she'd echoed for nearly half a decade in the Kree's service, she had no idea... but what kind of self-respecting alien wouldn't talk about her own people in a positive way? "Besides, considering that I beat an enemy that your local heroes couldn't touch? Something tells me that you guys really can't stop me if I decide to keep being a hero. Which I'm going to for as long as I'm here." Considering she had no idea exactly how she'd ended up in the future of an alternate reality or how to get home? That was potentially quite some time.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Botan turned to the wall that she'd long ago figured out was a two-way mirror and gestured to her emphatically. He stayed in that position until the door knob turned, the door swinging open wildly as a positively massive man with distinctive tufts of blonde hair standing straight up from the front of his head strode into the room. Carol sat up a bit straighter; all bravado aside, she'd long ago learned not to underestimate her opponents and All Might could prove a formidable one if she didn't play her cards right. "I am here... with an offer you might find appealing!"


	3. Chapter 3

Joe's Note: Holy shit, it's All Might! Coming through the door, like a normal person! He's like a giant golden retriever of a man, isn't he? I didn't think I would like _My Hero Academia_ when I started watching it - especially given how useless and whiny Izuku is - but All Might won me over and convinced me to keep watching until things started getting better. Originally his interaction with Carol was a quick half a chapter leading into a timeskip that would get use closer to the U.A. Entrance Exam, but I decided to split the originally planned Chapter 2 in half and flesh out both segments with far more details than I'd originally used. Hopefully it was a change for the better?  
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Jade, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Clark, Adrien, erlking, ridillin, Haematite, Charles, Jacky, Edward, Andrew, Roofcrawler, Wil, PbookR, Samuel, Mikey, Beverly, Daniel, Charles, Crygon20, Subtle, Christopher, Stephen, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Joseph, Jason, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Marc, Ziryo, Chris, George, Koby, William, Devin, JJbelle, David, Gavin, TheTenthAncestor, Lookshy, Mauday, John, Roman, Warren, and Jess for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

* * *

"I am here... with an offer you might find appealing!"

Carol sat back in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest as she studied the behemoth of a man. While she already knew quite a bit about him - more than most people, possibly - due to her investigating, she decided to play dumb for the moment. After all, she was supposedly an alien who had just landed in Musutafu and promptly gotten herself into trouble. How much would she realistically know about Japan's number one pro hero at this point? "And you are..?"

Visibly taken aback for a moment, All Might stared at her in disbelief for several seconds before regaining his composure and offering a toothy smile. "I am All Might, the Symbol of Peace and number one pro hero here in Japan. And you are..." Pausing, he opened the plain-looking folder that seemed almost comically small in his massive hand and studied the papers inside for a moment. "Car-Ell Danvers, of the planet Hala in the Kree Empire." Looking up, he offered a nervous chuckle. "Can I call you Carol?"

"If that's easier, yeah." Considering it was actually her name, Carol certainly wasn't going to object. It also made her seem more personable and agreeable to let the 'Earthlings' call her something more amenable to their sensibilities. "So, you're All Might. All Might. All... Might..." Turning her left arm over so her inner forearm was exposed, she tapped at her gauntlet a few times, projecting a slowly rotating bust of All Might over her hand. "All Might. The Symbol of Peace. Real name: Yagi Toshinori. Quirk: One for All, whatever that means. Renown for massively powerful punch-based 'super moves' all named after locations in America. That's... cool, I think the appropriate word is? Yes?"

"That's..." Setting the folder he was carrying down on the table, All Might reached up and tugged at the neckline of his remarkably battered white t-shirt nervously. "You're a very well-informed young lady."

Looking up from the hologram, Carol chuckled softly at the borderline terrified look on the Symbol of Peace's face. "And that's just what I found at a cursory search. Imagine how much I could know about you if I really wanted to?" All Might gulped, tugging at his shirt harder, and Carol rolled her eyes. "You can relax, though. Your secrets are still completely safe inside the government servers that I pulled them out of. Or did you really think this planet's cybersecurity was good enough to keep out a member of a spacefaring race?"

All Might let out an uneasy chuckle at that, nodding in thanks to Fukuda as the man relinquished the only other chair in the room so that he could take a seat opposite Carol at the table. "Well, that's definitely reassuring to hear. Thank you for putting an old man's mind at ease, I suppose. So, your name is Car-Ell. Carol is also acceptable. You're..." Leaning forward, he peered at the folder in front of him. "You're a half-human, half-Kree hybrid from the planet Hala. You're fourteen-years-old, which seems a bit young to be galavanting around space without your parents if you ask me. And you're fantastically powerful, with flight, super-strength, and energy projection quirks to your name. Or possibly just super-strength and energy projection quirks, and you can fly by projecting your energy. Is there anything else I should know about you?"

To be entirely honest, Carol still wasn't wild about the 'fourteen-year-old' part of the fiction that she'd woven about herself but it was hard to deny what was staring back at her in the room's two-way mirror. Maybe she was fifteen or sixteen for the second time? Maybe thirteen? She'd always been terrible at guessing people's ages, and her newly deaged form was no exception to that.

But he wasn't asking about her age or anything related to that. He was asking about her as a person. Humming thoughtfully, Carol unfurled her arms so she could tick points off on her fingers. "My human father used to cook for us and so I'm a big fan of pizza and buffalo wings. I think I landed in the wrong part of the world for either of those things, though. Um, by your standards my education would be somewhere in the bachelor's to master's range; the Kree are just plain more advanced than C-35... err, Earth is. Oh, here's a question for you: do your people have problems with same-sex relationships? Asking because it's relevant to my interests."

"You, uh, prefer the company of other women then?"

"You make it sound like I'm deciding between flavors of ice cream." Carol chuckled lowly, stretching her arms over her head and wincing faintly as her back cracked audibly. Maybe she should go back to floating above the chair even though All Might was seated properly? He seemed like the type who'd be nonplussed by that sort of thing. "I'd like to think that I'd be open-minded enough to evaluate all potential partners equally... but so far men other than my father have done nothing but disappoint me." Well, her father and Tony Stark... but explaining who the latter was and why he impressed her would be far too complicated.

All Might nodded hesitantly, quite obviously uncertain of how to respond to that. "I see. Well, I wouldn't say that they're common but a lot of the taboos about race and gender fell away with the beginning of the Quirk Era. When you can be a normal man married to a person who looks like a fish, the fish being another man or Korean or what have you doesn't really seem as important."

That seemed very reasonable to Carol. Grinning, she lowered her arms as she floated herself back up off of the painfully hard metal seat, and then leaned in as she lowered her voice conspiratorially. After all, her return to adolescence seemed to be more than just skin deep and her newly resurgent hormones wanted to know... "Just out of curiosity, how friendly are you with the local heroes? Because mountain climbing is a hobby of mine, if you know what I mean..."

After blinking owlishly for a few seconds, comprehension finally dawned and All Might shifted in his seat uncomfortably as he looked to Fukuda for help. Receiving a bemused look and unhelpful shrug in reply, he turned back to Carol with a nervous smile. "I'm afraid that I'm not too familiar with Miss Takeyama; today was actually her debut as a heroine. So I can't say with any certainty that she'd be receptive to your... ambitions."

"Eh. You know what they say: spaghetti's straight until you get it wet." Carol winced the moment that escaped her mouth; it might have been true, but it was tacky as hell. Granted this sort of immature, hormonal behavior was what people would probably expect out of her given that she was supposedly a teenager... but she expected better of herself. Trying to shake off her verbal misstep, Carol found herself pondering where to take things from here. Their conversation didn't seem to be going anywhere useful at the moment, especially in regards to the offer that All Might had mentioned upon his entrance. Being straightforward had served her well most of her life, she decided. Might as well continue that trend. "For some reason, I get the feeling that you don't stop in to observe every case of underage quirk usage that happens in Japan. Or even just Musutafu specifically. What brings you to my humble interrogation room, All Might?"

Shaking his head uncertainly as he mouthed the word 'spaghetti' to himself, All Might quickly composed himself and leaned forward, the table squeaking a bit in protest as he rested his elbows on it. "Firstly, I want to thank you for stepping in today and apprehending that sludge villain. I thought that I'd caught him earlier, but he managed to escape when I was distracted and wreak even more havoc. I also want to thank you for saving young Midoriya... the green-haired lad... from himself. I had a very important talk with him before coming over here to see you. His enthusiasm was commendable but his actions were decidedly..."

"Idiotic?"

"I was going to say reckless." All Might let out a soft chuckle before leaning in a bit closer. "Because of the nature of this conversation, all recording devices in the room will be disabled starting..." He made a shooing gesture at Fukuda, the man letting out a long-suffering sigh as he made his way over to the door and slipped out. "Now, give or take. So now that we can talk privately... tell me, how much more do you know about me already?"

Returning her attention to the hologram that her suit was still projecting after all this time, Carol flicked her fingers back and forth through the information before finally offering a shrug. "Not much. I only started researching you a few minutes before Botan popped his head in. Didn't get terribly far, although I did dig into some interesting sources along the way. Uh, you're famous. You like to punch stuff to death. You're inspiring. You're a merchandising juggernaut. That's about it, really. Not going to lie, I love your color scheme. Maybe I'll pick up an All Might hoody when I get out of here so I blend in a little bit more."

All Might considered that for a moment before nodding decisively and relaxing back into his seat, the metal chair groaning faintly in protest of his action. Then steam curled off his body in thick white wisps and the man seemed to fold in on himself, transforming from a behemoth of a man into a sickly and frail one. "This... is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the world right now, beyond my real name and my quirk. Ever since suffering an injury in a battle with a villain five years ago, I have slowly been losing my ability to serve as a hero."

So he was a bit like the Bruce Banner then, Carol mused, if only Bruce had some sort of restriction on how long he could turn into the Hulk before reverting to his normal form. "No offense, but why are you telling me this? You're taking a huge risk entrusting this sort of information to someone that you've just met, aren't you? And not to be rude, but you mentioned an offer of some kind? Unless I missed something somewhere, I'm not hearing one."

"Would it kill you to let me establish some background for things before we get to that part? Kids, so impatient these days. Almost enough to make me regret agreeing to teach at U.A. next year." All Might shook his head with a sign of resignation before meeting Carol's unamused gaze and continuing on. "I dropped by to check in on you after I was done talking to Midoriya and when I found out what you were telling the officers, it grabbed my attention. And I want you to know that unlike Fukuda and the others, I believe you."

Well that was a refreshing change of pace. She had to wonder, though... why did he believe her? She had absolutely no evidence to prove that she was telling the truth, and she'd basically cribbed her new backstory from a shitty comic book that she barely remembered reading when she was a teenager the first time around. "Not that I'm complaining or anything - believe me, I'm not - but why?"

Reaching up, All Might wiped away the blood slowly seeping from one corner of his mouth before offering her a conspiratorial smile. "Because I too am an exception to what most of this society thinks it knows about the world. Not to the extent that you are, of course, but it gives me the ability to keep a more open mind than most. You see, while I'm a hero of great renown these days... I'm actually part of that twenty percent of society that was born quirkless. Until one day when I was a teenager, and a very special woman found me and made me an offer that I couldn't refuse. Before that, I was just as normal as the next man."

Maybe Carol would have found that more impressive if she'd been born on this Earth and had a quirk of her own? Because she'd been a normal human until a far later age than All Might, and actually had an entire career that hadn't revolved around running around saving people in need. "That's... interesting? Let's get back on track, though. You said you were trying to establish background for me before making some sort of offer. Can we get back to that? Because no offense, but I'd really like to get out of this police station sometime today."


	4. Chapter 4

Joe's Note: Just like the first time I was working with this chapter, I got to the end and tried to move on... only to realize that I was doing more telling than showing. And I abhor that. So I went back yet again and instead of Carol's conversation with All Might taking a single chapter followed by some flashbacks in the following Izuku-heavy chapter... I reworked it so it took two whole chapters, with her encounter with Izuku being pushed back until Chapter 5. Which is one hell of a decompression given that originally her talk with All Might encompassed a meager half of Chapter 2. At any rate... a bit more exposition and world building now, with Carol's encounter with Izuku on tap for the next chapter. Enjoy.  
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Jade, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Clark, Adrien, erlking, ridillin, Haematite, Charles, Jacky, Edward, Andrew, Roofcrawler, Wil, PbookR, Samuel, Mikey, Beverly, Daniel, Charles, Crygon20, Subtle, Christopher, Stephen, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Joseph, Jason, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Marc, Ziryo, Chris, George, Koby, William, Devin, JJbelle, David, Gavin, TheTenthAncestor, Lookshy, Mauday, John, Roman, Warren, and Jess for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

* * *

"Because no offense, but I'd really like to get out of this police station sometime today."

"If you insist. The reason why I couldn't intervene directly today against the sludge villain is that as I mentioned before, my power... my ability to be a hero... is slowly fading." All Might raised one frail, bony arm and made a fist, his arm surging with bulging muscle for a scant few seconds before reverting to its emaciated form. "My failing body simply can't handle the strain that my quirk puts on it for any longer than three hours a day anymore."

Finally dismissing the hologram that had provided her with information on All Might, Carol made a fist and grinned as she looked from her hand to All Might and back. "I guess it's a good thing that I was there to invite your 'sludge villain' to the gun show then, huh?"

"Indeed. Getting back to the subject at hand, though? My quirk 'One For All' isn't like most others; as I just mentioned, it can be passed from person to person. A sacred torch of power and responsibility, a light against the darkness of villainy." All Might sat up a bit straighter, puffing up in pride before letting out a raspy cough that brought new blood to the corners of his mouth. "For the last few years, I've been searching for a successor to pass my power on to so they can continue the good fight in my name. Today, I found that person: Midoriya Izuku, the green-haired boy that you kept from attacking the sludge villain. But listening to you talk to the police chief just now... I've come to the realization that while Midoriya should be the inheritor of my power, he doesn't necessarily need to be my successor. That he should be free to grow and develop into whatever kind of hero he wants to be, not necessarily the next Symbol of Peace... unless that's what he chooses, of course."

Carol let out a bored sigh as she motioned for him to keep talking. While this was all very fascinating on one level, it was still none of her problem... and she had enough problems of her own to deal with at the moment that she wasn't looking to take on someone else's. "Still not sure why any of this is my business or my problem. If we could please wrap this up, I still need to deal with my legal problems and see what the police decide to do with a teenage alien with a penchant for punching villains their heroes can't handle. Oh, and hopefully get some food soon. I haven't eaten since before I arrived... err, touched down here on Earth."

Letting out another exasperated sigh, All Might reached up to wipe away the new blood seeping from the corner of his mouth before gesturing from himself to Carol. "Fine then, since you're so impatient, I'll make this simple. I want to take you as my sidekick. With your attitude, your powers, your conviction... I think you could grow into the Symbol of Peace that Japan will need after I pass One For All on to Midoriya. Either as a surrogate until Midoriya is ready to step into the role, or in his stead if he chooses not to. Not to mention that you'll make a formidable partner for Midoriya in his fight against the ultimate evil that our country still faces to this day. And so if you're willing to let me take you under my wing, I'll use my influence to make your current legal problems disappear."

Well then. While she'd never seen herself as the type to be anyone's sidekick, Carol was willing to consider making an exception if it meant she could get back out there and save people without being dragged in by the police every time. And if the man's terms weren't too onerous. Because if he thought that she was going to be the Wonder Boy to his Captain Sunshine, he damn well better have another think coming. "For the record, I'm not just in trouble with the law, I'm also homeless with literally just this one outfit to my name."

All Might snorted before waving dismissively. "Being the number one hero for many years running pays remarkably well. I can set you up with an apartment in Musutafu and a reasonable allowance for personal spending."

This deal was getting sweeter by the minute, Carol mused as she nodded agreeably. Kinda like being a sugar baby, except she was being paid to punch stuff instead of... yeah. Then she paused, eyes narrowing at the blond. "I'm not being Lady All Might or Lady Might or anything like that."

Doing his best to look innocent, All Might raised one hand. "I was going to suggest Miss Might."

"No." Carol furrowed her brow in thought; when she'd first pondered the matter earlier upon imagining ending up on the country's hero rankings, she'd thought that the subject of a superhero name would be a far more distant concern. Evidently not. "I was a..." She trailed off; given that she was claiming to be fourteen, she couldn't really reference her years of military service, now could she? "My mentor was a captain in the Kree Starforce, and she said I had what it took to follow in her footsteps. Maybe Captain... Captain Mar-Vell?"

All Might nodded approving before raising one finger as he adopted a thoughtful face. "Would you settle for Captain Marvel? It rolls off the tongue a bit easier." After a moment's consideration, Carol nodded in accedence; did Japanese even have a method for writing hyphenated words? Presumably some sort of loan... grammar to cover stuff they adopted from other languages that did use a hyphen but- "Now then, since I'm going to need to contact the National Quirk Registry as part of establishing your new identity, let's talk about you. Specifically, what can you do? Obviously you can fire some sort of blast, fly, and have tremendous strength... I have no idea how we're going to try and convince people that's all one quirk..."

Another topic that Carol had idly pondered for a presumably distant point in the future when it might be important. Evidently, the future was now for this one, too. "I noticed when I was looking at heroes' profiles that most quirks are listed as a word or a short phrase. Gigantification. One For All. Hellflame. Foldabody. So I was thinking maybe... Blue Blood. Thanks to the alien blood flowing through my veins, I'm blessed with incredible power."

Offering her a thumbs up, All Might dug a pen out of somewhere and scribbled that down on the page in front of him. "The Alien Envoy Heroine: Captain Marvel. Quirk: Blue Blood. I like it. We can definitely sell it. I dare say that you'll be the envy of all your classmates when you start your first year of high school with a hero name and a provisional hero license already under your belt."

"Yeah, they'll definitely..." Trailing off, Carol's mouth worked soundlessly for a few seconds as she stared at All Might in disbelief. Finally, she managed to regain her composure. "Wait, do what now?"

All Might studied her uncertainly. "A provisional hero license. It's the first step toward becoming a professional hero and-"

Waving her hand vehemently, Carol cut him off. "No, not that. My first year of high school? This deal of yours involves me going to school?"

"Well yes. What kind of responsible adult guardian would I be if I didn't insist on you bettering yourself by furthering your education? And it's not as if I'd ask you to enroll in... Delaya Junior High, I believe is the school closest to where I live? Or at least its the one whose students find me most often for autographs when I'm coming and going from my apartment." Shaking himself, All Might raised his fist and tapped it against his chest lightly. "No, you'll follow in the proud tradition of most of this country's most notable heroes - myself included - and attend U.A. High School. I can use my influence and connections to get you admitted through the recommendations system, which means you won't have to sit the entrance exam like Midoriya. Which reminds me, I need to start working on a plan to get him ready to inherit my quirk before the upcoming exam..."

Carol let out a faint snort at that. "Knowing you, Mister American Smashes, it'll be along the lines of the 'All-American Workout Plan' or something."

After pondering that for a moment, All Might pumped his fist in the air. "I've got it! I'll call it the 'Aim to Pass: American Dream Plan'! Thanks, Carol!"

Watching as All Might scribbled that down on a different piece of paper, Carol snickered softly. Or at least that's what she assumed he was writing, given that she couldn't read Japanese and her cowl was having a hard time translating from this angle. Then the reality of what they were discussing reasserted itself and she groaned softly. "I'm really going to have to go to school as part of becoming your Symbol of Peace? I can't just fly around all day helping people? I mean, isn't that what a hero does?"

"A true hero has to know many things, including both when and how to act. Attending U.A. will help teach you these things and many more." Looking up from the paper in front of him, All Might brought a finger up to tap against his temple. "They'll also help you refine your superheroic persona. Like today, you didn't even announce your moves properly, you just blasted the sludge villain and then used that powerful punch to disperse him. Do you even know why that was the wrong thing to do?"

That rung another put upon sigh out of Carol. "I have absolutely no idea but I have the feeling that you're going to tell me?"

The answer brought All Might up short, and he sat there with an open mouth for several seconds before correcting her. "It's all about restoring the confidence of the innocent populace, you see. By announcing your attacks the way I do with my various smashes, they know what you're doing to help them. Every time I clench my butt cheeks and bellow 'Detroit Smash', people know that help is arriving in the form of a single downward curving punch of justice. And that everything is alright because I-"

"-am here. Yeah, I saw online that was your catchphrase. I'm assuming that you're going to expect me to say it whenever I show up to save the day, what with you wanting me to be your second coming and all." Carol rested her elbows on her knees and planted her chin in her hand, drumming the tips of her fingers against her cheekbones as she thought. "Fine, but I'm going to use Japanese place names. You're Japanese and use American cities and states for your attacks; I look American enough so me doing the opposite will be... appropriate? Possibly ironic? I'm terrible at telling what actually is and isn't ironic. I blame Alanis Morissette. We can start by calling my photon blast a 'Tokyo Smash'... you know, because both are full of light? And then I'll make it up as I go along from there."

Another thumbs up from All Might, and then he went back to scribbling stuff down on the spread of papers arrayed in front of him. "I'm glad that I inspired you. Influenced you? Whatever. Now I have one last question before I go talk to Fukuda about having you released into my company. How do you feel... about ramen? There's an excellent little shop about two blocks away and I'd love to stop there for dinner..."


	5. Chapter 5

Joe's Note: I'm not going to lie, I honestly pondered turning Izuku into Midoriya Izumi for this story just because I thought it would be interesting to explore how a truly sensational power couple would be received by the heroics-obsessed society that serves as the setting of _My Hero Academia_. But then I realized that it would be just plain too much power in a single package: finding things to challenge even a novice Izumi with Carol standing directly at her side would be too difficult. That being said, finding things to challenge the woman who didn't even blink when Thanos headbutt her is going to be pretty damn difficult. I'll try my best not to be like most other Marvel crossover authors, though, and avoid making this Carol's largely unopposed romp through the universe of _My Hero Academia_.  
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Jade, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Clark, Adrien, erlking, ridillin, Haematite, Charles, Jacky, Edward, Andrew, Roofcrawler, Wil, PbookR, Samuel, Mikey, Beverly, Daniel, Charles, Crygon20, Subtle, Christopher, Stephen, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Joseph, Jason, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Marc, Ziryo, Chris, George, Koby, William, Devin, JJbelle, David, Gavin, TheTenthAncestor, Lookshy, Mauday, John, Roman, Warren, and Jess for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

* * *

Floating a few feet above the sand at the Dagobah Municipal Beach Park, Carol shook her head as she watched Midoriya Izuku drag a fridge across the sand. "C'mon, Small Might, you got this! That fridge isn't going to move itself! Work those muscles!"

The previous four months had passed in a blur of patrolling, punching things, and doing her best to learn Japanese so that she wouldn't be as reliant on her armor's cowl to communicate. The patrolling and punching had gone well enough, although she'd overdone it a few times and caused a bit more collateral damage than strictly advisable. Learning to speak and read Japanese, on the other hand... well, she was proficient enough to awkwardly flirt with Mt. Lady and had gotten her phone number last time they crossed paths. That had to count for something, right?

Carol still wasn't sure how she felt about flirting with the twenty-two-year-old; Yu could have been her daughter or possibly her granddaughter by this point if both she and her theoretical daughter had settled down young. Given her apparent youth and galaxy-spanning adventures, she'd always taken a rather open-minded approach to dating; her last girlfriend had been a Luphomoid roughly half her age, before which she'd dated a Xandarian man who was closer to being her peer. But given that her body was for all intents and purposes back to being fourteen again... either she was going to have to drastically redefine what an acceptable partner was to her or spend the foreseeable future alone.

And not just the next few years; she was looking at a decade or two of solitude before her body caught back up with what would have previously been a 'younger' partner to her.

But for the time being, a girlfriend was the least of her concerns. She needed to reach at least a truly basic proficiency in Japanese in the next six months, figure out if her current combat style contained any other 'super moves' that she should name... and help All Might whip the truly pathetic Izuku into shape so that he could have One For All bestowed upon him without exploding in the process.

Carol still wasn't sure whether or not All Might was being hyperbolic when he said that.

Was it wrong of her that she kinda wanted to find out?

Izuku grunted with effort as he continued to haul the fridge toward a truck that was waiting at the edge of the beach. While One For All gave All Might the ability to somehow violate physics and literally compact trash out of existence, Izuku wasn't yet so lucky and so the trash that he was moving had to go somewhere. That realization had led to the acquisition - somehow, from somewhere - of a beat up truck that Izuku would load each day as part of his training. Someone was clearly emptying it each night but where the trash went and at whose hands, Carol had no idea. "That's easy for you to say. You're almost as strong as All Might!"

"And if you want to be as strong as me and All Might, you need to train those scrawny little arms so that they don't get blown off when he gives you One For All." Carol swooped down as the fridge bumped against the edge of the pavement, taking pity on Izuku and helping him hoist it into the back of the truck. As he tried to catch his breath, Carol made her way over to the cab of the truck and grabbed him a bottle of water from a seemingly endless stash that replenished itself each night when the truck got emptied. "Let's take a break. Get some water back into you. Besides, I have a question. How good are you at talking to girls?"

That earned her a choked laugh from Izuku, the greenette giving her a disbelieving look as she returned and handed him the water bottle. "Are you kidding me? I don't think I've ever talked to a girl other than my mother or Aunt Mitsuki in my entire life. Well, I mean, I've had female teachers before too, but I'm sure that doesn't count as talking to a girl, does it?" Raising an eyebrow, Carol gestured to herself, a move that Izuku waved off. "You're not a girl, you're-"

Carol turned and drew her arm back before unleashing a single punch in the direction of the ocean. "MISAWA SMASH!" The air displaced by her punch shot off into the water, parting the waves for several seconds before gravity managed to overcome the sheer power behind her punch and the ocean poured back into the void that she'd created with a thunderous crash of waves. Turning back to Izuku, she nodded in the direction of the water. "You wanna think real, real carefully before you finish that sentence, Midoriya?"

Gulping nervously, Izuku held up both hands placatingly. "Um, so obviously you're a girl, you're just not a normal girl. You're All Might's sidekick. Who's helping train me. Talking to you is completely different from talking to like, a girl at school or something. You and I have a very good reason to talk. What reason would a loser like me have to talk to a girl normally?"

"Same reason I would talk to a girl: because she's cute and you like her?" Carol chuckled softly at the dumbfounded look on Izuku's face. Ah, right. Evidently she hadn't shared that particular tidbit of information with him before. Then again... "What, did you think that I asked Mt. Lady for her number so we could trade superheroing tips or something?"

Still staring at her with a disbelieving expression, Izuku shook his head slowly before responding. "Wahh! This is terrible!" Carol narrowed her eyes at his reaction; was he a homophobe or something? How much trouble would she get in for punching All Might's pet project into the ocean? "You're a girl so you already have an unfair advantage when it comes to understanding girls. And you're really cool and confident and powerful to boot. I don't even want a girlfriend yet but when I do... how am I supposed to get one with you around?"

Carol's irritable expression morphed into surprise and then she burst out laughing. "Really? That's what you're taking away from this? That I'm the ultimate in competition? I mean in theory you're not wrong... but look at it another way. I'll probably get a girlfriend first and then I can be your wingman. Help you understand how girls' minds work. Put in a good word for you. That sort of thing."

"R-really?" Izuku stared at her with wide eyes, and Carol found herself almost immediately regretting the offer that she'd explicitly made. The boy was hopeless; even with her rapport born of experience when it came to the fairer sex serving as a backstop, it would be nigh impossible to find someone as socially stunted and awkward as Izuku a girlfriend. "You'd really help me out like that?"

Raising one hand, Carol wobbled it back and forth uncertainly. "You're going to have to do some of the work yourself. We need to kill that stutter of yours, and kill it hard. And the indecision; you need to figure out where you're hiding your supply of confidence and fast. But if you can learn to turn yourself into a functional human being by the time we hit U.A.? I'm pretty sure I can help you navigate the mystery that is the female mind."

Izuku grinned widely and thrust one fist up into the air. "Then I'll do it!" After a moment's thought, he slowly lowered his hand. "...how do I become more confident?"

Carol groaned and buried her face in her hands. "All I wanted was to ask if there were any customs or taboos that I should watch out for when trying to date an Earth girl."

"And you thought I would know? Me? Have you met me?"

Floating lazily through the air as she drifted high above Musutafu, Carol spun in slow circles as she scanned the cityscape, waiting for something - or someone - to draw her eye. This was the worst part of being reduced from an interstellar hero to what was effectively a street-level hero: patrolling. She was used to showing up because something was happening, intervening, and handling the situation. Spending most of her day waiting for something to happen... it was killing her.

A sudden crash caught her attention and Carol whipped around, her lips quirking upward in a smile as she watched Mt. Lady - 'but you call me Yu' - thundering down the street as she stared intently down at... something. Carol was content to let the fellow blonde enjoy her moment in the limelight and was about to cast her eye elsewhere when Yu came to an abrupt stop and huffed. Looking up, she scanned the skies until she found Carol, beckoning at the younger blonde with an exasperated expression on her face. "Little help?"

Coasting through the air, Carol quickly closed the distance between them and peered downward. Yu had evidently managed to chase her perpetrator right into a dead end alleyway. A dead end alleyway that was far too small to accommodate her Gigantification quirk. So while the criminal couldn't get away... likewise Yu couldn't get to him to detain him without shrinking back down. "We really need to work on your hand-to-hand abilities so that you have something to fall back on in situations like this."

"Yeah, yeah, lecture me about my shortcomings later. Help me out now." Pausing, Yu blushed faintly as her expression shifted from annoyed to a mixture of apologetic and hopeful. "Please?"

From his spot at the end of the alley, an almost painfully average looking man - save for the fact that his fists were on fire - glared up at Carol. "I'm not going to surrender! You may have me cornered, but you get no respect in prison if you don't go down fighting like a real man!"

Carol cocked her head to the side, eyeing the man bemusedly. "You know, if you'd put as much thought into your life choices as you did into prison culture, maybe you wouldn't be headed there next?" Spiraling around Yu's gigantic form, Carol dove down and shot between the woman's legs as she entered the alley. The blonde rocketed through the air, dodging two hurried bursts of fire before pulling up short right in front of her opponent. "HYAKURI SMASH!"

And then she unloaded on the man with both fists, photon blasts picking him up and slamming him back into the wall behind him.

As the criminal crumpled to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, curls of smoke rising from his moaning form, Carol turned back to Yu and offered her a thumbs up. "Fear not, Yu, for-"

"I am here. Yeah. I know. I asked you to come over here, remember?" Shrinking back down to her normal height, Yu made her way into the alley as Carol extinguished the power flowing through her and dropped to the pavement. Staring down at the criminal, Yu raised one hand to high five Carol. "You know, we make a pretty good team. We should do this more often."

While Carol was of the opinion that the situation hadn't really been resolved with teamwork - she'd done what little work was necessary to actually capture the criminal after Yu ran afoul of the limitations of her quirk - she wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Bringing her hand up to slap against Yu's, she quickly grabbed the taller girl's hand and brought it down so she could interlace their fingers. "I agree. Here's an idea: why don't we team up this afternoon and take down some sushi together?" Yu looked a bit confused at that, and Carol offered her an inviting smile as she gave Yu's hand a gentle squeeze. "You. Me. Date. Either late lunch or early dinner, depending on how you want to look at it. Either way, my treat. What do you think?"

Yu's mouth opened and closed soundlessly several times before she was able to regain her composure and articulate a response. "I mean, it was hard to miss that shirt you were wearing the other day that said 'LESBIAN' in giant rainbow kanji but... I... you... date? Are you asking me out?"

Thinking back on her choice of attire on the day in question, Carol offered a sheepish shrug. "I'm technically pansexual but I couldn't find a shirt that says that. Hard to get hung up on gender when you're dating members of other species. But yes. Yes I am. Do you, Takeyama Yu, want to go out on a date with me?"

"Well, on one hand you're what, fifteen? I'm half again your age." Yu hefted her free hand thoughtfully, staring at it for a second before likewise raising their conjoined hands. "On the other... I'm hungry and it's more savory than shaking my ass at that guy from the ramen stand again. And you're stupidly hot for a fifteen-year-old. Eh, what the hell? What's the worst that could happen?"

"All Might gets mad at you for defiling his ward and Detroit Smashes you into a purple and tan smear on the pavement?"

"...you know, when you put it like that, the ramen stand looks awfully appealing..."


	6. Chapter 6

Joe's Note: Sometimes, the right woman is worth risking getting Detroit Smashed over. Just ask Yu. The original outline for this story actually had Yu and Carol breaking up in Chapter 5 but I decided that really wasn't fair to my readers. Not only because people really seemed to like the idea of flirty and forward Carol with the playful but ultimately inexperienced Yu, but because it meant skipping right to the end of something without showing the beginning or the middle. At this point, I'm still not entirely sure as to who our 'main' couple will be - or if the series will chronicle Carol looking for love in several places but never settling down - but it'll be Carol/Yu for the foreseeable future. Not that Carol won't make some very forward comments here or there, especially when she meets Momo and Tsuyu... but she'll ultimately remain loyal to each person that she's with over the course of this story.  
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Jade, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Clark, Adrien, erlking, ridillin, Haematite, Charles, Jacky, Edward, Andrew, Roofcrawler, Wil, PbookR, Samuel, Mikey, Beverly, Daniel, Charles, Crygon20, Subtle, Christopher, Stephen, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Joseph, Jason, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Marc, Ziryo, Chris, George, Koby, William, Devin, JJbelle, David, Gavin, TheTenthAncestor, Lookshy, Mauday, John, Roman, Warren, and Jess for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

* * *

"Holy shit, that was amazing."

"You weren't so bad yourself, especially for a virgin."

"Wait, you're not?"

"Did I seem like a virgin to you?"

"...now I'm hoping you aren't because I'm not sure I'd survive you getting any better than that. And..." Trailing off, Yu's eyes went wide as she turned her head toward Carol, staring at her naked form in horror. "Holy shit, I have no idea what possessed me to do that. I'm going to end up in jail."

"Oh shush. It's perfectly legal to have sex with a fifteen-year-old if you're dating her and her parents are okay with it." Rolling onto her side on the bed, Carol propped herself up on one elbow as she grinned at Yu, reaching out to rest her free hand on the taller blonde's bare stomach. "Believe me, I checked extensively before deciding to seduce you. The last thing I needed was the scandal of a pro hero ending up in jail because she banged a teenage sidekick. Orange may look cute as an accent color on your costume but I don't want it to become a wardrobe staple."

Yu blinked a few times at that before cocking her head to one side curiously. "Oh, are prison uniforms orange on Hala? That must look hideous on all the blue Kree. Or, well, on most people. I don't think I've ever met someone who looks good in entirely orange. Here they're mostly this minty green color, or plain grey. And... wait, why are we discussing prison uniforms?"

Leaning in, Carol gave Yu a peck on the lips before scooting closer and snuggling in against her girlfriend's side, letting her head come to rest on Yu's chest. "Because I'm trying to distract you from thoughts about what absolutely won't happen because we slept together? We're fine. Seriously. I cleared this whole thing with All Might before I invited you to stay the night."

"I... you... what?" Reaching down between them, Yu captured Carol's chin between her fingers, tipping the younger heroine's face upward so their eyes met. "You seriously asked All Might if it was okay if we had sex? That's so..."

"Responsible given our situation?"

Yu cringed before shaking her head. "I'd go with awkward, personally. He's like the entire world's excitable, overeager dad. Like, he even makes dad jokes. Having your dad knowing that you're having sex is right up there with knowing your dad is having sex in terms of uncomfortable things. And that's not even taking into account the fact that you're like, the closest thing he has to an actual daughter at this point."

Scoffing, Carol swung one leg over Yu's hips as she straddled her girlfriend, planting her hands on either side of Yu's head. "I don't know if I'd say I'm his daughter. I'm his ward, sure, but I feel more like a show cat than a daughter most of the time. He feeds me, he puts a roof over my head, he takes an interest in my grooming because my appearance is important to him, he trots me out now and then to show me off to other people. Compared to you, though? He barely knows me on a personal level. Like we talk, but not the way that you and I do. Not even close. Hell, you know what his reaction to me asking his permission was? He was relieved he wouldn't need to have any 'awkward but important conversations' with me."

"No but I'm sure he's going to be having some 'awkward but important conversations' with me now that he knows I'm banging his daughter." Groaning, Yu brought her hands up so she could bury her face in them. "And he wanted to meet up with me tomorrow to work on how I use my quirk. This is going to be so awkward. Fuck me."

Carol smirked as she leaned down, peppering Yu's chest and then her neck with playful little kisses. "Already did that. Might do it again if you stop freaking out on me and killing the mood." Two fingers parted, allowing Yu to stare up at her balefully with one eye. "Oh come on. Everything's going to be fine. I promise."

Huffing, Yu closed her fingers back up, hiding her face once more. "Says the one of us who isn't prison-bound when this gets out."

A groan of frustration escaping her lips, Carol slid off of Yu and over to the edge of the bed, grabbing her panties before rising to her feet. Sliding them up her legs, she looked around for a moment before deciding on one of the newer additions to her wardrobe: her officially licensed Mt. Lady sweat pants. Tugging the purple, orange, and tan fabric up her legs, she cinched the waistband before retrieving a relatively clean Deep Dope t-shirt from the floor and pulling it on too. "Alright, since it's obvious that the mood has effectively been killed for the night, what next? I'm actually kinda hungry after that workout I just put in. Or... there's something that I've been meaning to talk to you about. Meant to do it before we slept together but, well, oops. Anyway, I'm a big believer that relationships should be built around honesty, and I... I haven't been entirely honest with you. With anyone since I arrived here on Earth, as a matter of fact."

Sitting up, Yu pulled the sheets up to cover her bare chest as she stared at Carol in a mixture of confusion and apprehension. "Well, this isn't going to be the breakup talk if it's something you meant to do on the way to getting me into bed... and the subject is honesty. Oh! Are the Kree as a people polyamorous or something and this is where you tell me that you want to get a girlfriend for us? Or that you have another girlfriend that you've been hiding from me?"

Carol arched a brow at that, scooping up the sundress that Yu had worn to visit her and tossing it at the taller blonde. "You don't exactly seem upset by that prospect."

"I'm a vivacious young heroine in the prime of her life. I like you, Carol, but I'm not looking to get married or anything. If you wanted us to get another girlfriend or a boyfriend or something, I wouldn't complain." Yu thought about that for a moment before raising a finger as she amended her thought, the sheet slipping down on one side. "As long as it doesn't ruin my ranking. And obviously we'd have to agree on whoever it is because I don't want to share you with someone who's annoying or shitty or anything."

Chuckling, Carol watched as Yu tried to squirming her way back into her dress while revealing as little as possible in the process. "I'll, uh, keep that in mind. And the modesty is cute. A little late at this point, but cute. No, this is a lot bigger of a talk. The kind of talk where you're not going to be able to look at me the same way when we're done. Which is why I thought we should have it before sex but, well, here we are."

Yu slid out of bed, stretching one arm out in front of her as she slowly closed the distance between the two of them. "Carol? Honey? You're kinda freaking me out here. I'm sure whatever this is seems really big to you because it's something you've been thinking a lot about but whatever it is, I'm sure we can manage to work our way through it."

"Sorry. But this is kinda big." Pulling away, Carol made her way over to where her costume was thrown haphazardly over the chair of her computer desk. Tugging her gauntlet free, she slipped it onto her arm and then turned back to Yu, projecting a hologram of a purple-skinned behemoth wielding a golden gauntlet over her left hand. "This ugly motherfucker is Thanos. And this is the true story of who I am and where I was before I came to live here in Musutafu."

* * *

"Okay, so let me make sure I've got this straight. You're not actually a half-human/half-Kree hybrid, you're a human that the Kree abducted from Earth and genetically altered. You don't have a quirk like me or even powers from being half-alien, you're super powerful because you got radiated by something called the Space Stone, which is some sort of relic that's so powerful that literal wars have been fought over it. Between what the Space Stone did to you and the Kree blood inside you, you age at a much slower rate but coming here made you even younger so you're fifteen-ish on the outside but closer to sixty on the inside. And you weren't sent to Earth by the Kree to observe humanity or anything like that, you're actually a refugee from another dimension who's now stuck here because you battled a giant asshole who was trying to wipe out half of all life in the universe and in the process, you and your friends messed up the fabric of space-time and you fell through one of those rifts into our world." Ticking points off on her fingers, Yu raised an eyebrow as she looked from Carol to her hand and then back again. "Am I forgetting anything?"

Humming softly to herself, Carol let her head tip to one side as she ran Yu's recitation of the salient facts of their conversation back and forth in her head. That... seemed like an accurate enough summary of what they'd been discussing for the past hour or so, yes. "Yeah, I think you've got it all. Now that everything's out on the table where it belongs? You're completely free to dump me for hiding this much from you. Honestly, I would dump someone for hiding something as big as even one of those things, much less all of them. Especially the age thing."

Yu rolled her eyes before reaching across the couch that they'd moved to almost an hour ago to swat Carol's shoulder. "I'm not going to lie, I'm kinda freaked out by all of this - the age gap notwithstanding - but I'm not running for the hills or anything. At the end of the day, you're still you. You just have a different backstory than you did an hour ago."

"Are you sure?" Carol reached up to place her hand over Yu's as it rested on her bicep, rubbing her thumb back and forth along the blonde's wrist. "Because an hour ago, I wasn't older than your parents. Well, I was but you didn't know it or anything. If anything, I feel like that alone should make things weirder between us."

Leaning a bit closer, Yu rested her chin on her arm as she stared up at Carol, her hand never leaving the younger girl's arm. "It's weird. Like, really weird. But I run around in glorified spandex and turn into a sixty-seven foot tall giant to fight criminals. My entire life is weird. Sure, this is weirder than most of the stuff I've faced so far. But I accepted that my life would be a constant barrage of weird when I enrolled in a hero program for high school. Just... this is it, right? You don't have any other big secrets left to spring on me?"

Carol let out a burble of laughter at that, shaking her head vehemently. "This is it. I promise." Pausing, her mind raced as she fought to think of anything that she might have left out. Then she thought back to Yu's original guesses as to why they needed to have a talk and her grin became a bit more wicked. "Although as long as we're talking, All Might snuck me a copy of the 'who to watch' list that's circulating U.A. ahead of this year's entrance exam and there are a few people who've caught my eye..."


	7. Chapter 7

Joe's Note: Proving that I do read and take into consideration each of the reviews that you guys are generous enough to leave for me? I decided to write this chapter and add it to my story. Because Malchior was right: we haven't really seen much of Carol and Yu as a couple. Sure, we saw Carol making a pass at Yu. We know they've had sex. And next we'll see them spending some night out on the town. But none of that really reflects what Carol and Yu are like together. Well, I mean, I guess it sort of does: they patrol, they relax, they shag? Typical young hero lifestyles? But... well... I realized that I could do better at showing their day-to-day lives. So I'm going to. Enjoy.  
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Jade, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Clark, Adrien, erlking, ridillin, Haematite, Charles, Jacky, Edward, Andrew, Roofcrawler, Wil, PbookR, Samuel, Mikey, Beverly, Daniel, Charles, Crygon20, Subtle, Christopher, Stephen, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Joseph, Jason, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Marc, Ziryo, Chris, George, Koby, William, Devin, JJbelle, David, Gavin, TheTenthAncestor, Lookshy, Mauday, John, Roman, Warren, and Jess for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

* * *

"What... are you wearing?"

Eyes still fixed on the television as she navigated her Dalish elf mage through a dungeon in _Dragon Age: Requiem_, Carol switched to holding the PlayStation controller with one hand so she could pat at her body hesitantly with the other. "Um... it's soft, it's fuzzy, so I'm going with fleece... it's all over me so I'm thinking kigu. I've got like, three of them so I don't know why you sound so surprised. Not exactly the height of fashion, sure, but it's really fucking comfy and I'm not doing anything important today. Why? Is this your way of complaining that the honeymoon phase is over and I'm not all dressed up when you come over anymore?"

The door closing with a soft click, Yu slipped her shoes off and left them in the genkan before padding her way across the living room to join Carol on the couch. "I'm more blown away by what's on the kigu, not the fact that you're wearing a kigu. That's a Mt. Lady kigu. Since when do you own a Mt. Lady kigu?"

"Since like, yesterday. I let Midoriya pick what we'd do with our break time during patrol and he picked a hero merchandise shop with a sign advertising brand new All Might figures. Saw this and decided I had to have it." Hitting pause, Carol shot an impish grin over at her girlfriend. "Figured I would do my part to help you dig your way out of that twenty million yen debt you ended up with for the collateral damage during your debut. Which reminds me, speaking of damage, how's your agency looking these days? Still being remodeled?"

Yu let out a faint sniff at the question, tossing her head. "My agency was well past due for a complete remodel that was completed several weeks ago, thank you for asking."

Snorting, Carol bumped her shoulder against Yu's. "Your agency was open for what, three days before you accidentally remodeled it with your quirk? Not even Best Jeanist is that appearance-conscious and he's... well, him."

"Yes, well, not all of us are lucky enough to be shipped off to another planet with picture perfect control of our abilities." Yu grumbled softly under her breath as she wiggled closer to Carol, throwing her arms around the smaller girl's waist as she rested her cheek on Carol's shoulder. "It's like I told my assistant, I wanna make it big. Sometimes I just take that a bit too literally. Oh, and excuse you. It was twenty million before the villain damage insurance payout and the hero tax deduction. I only ended up owing something like eight million yen at the end of the day."

Reaching down, Carol tugged at the leg of her purple, orange, and tan kigu, a detailed replica of the costume that Yu wore while fighting crime. "Well, if it helps any? This was the last kigu they had in my size in the entire store. And they were completely sold out of the new Mt. Lady hoodies or I would have picked one of those up to go with my sweats. So I'm sure that you'll be back in the black in no time."

Yu perked up a bit at that piece of information. "Seriously? The stuff hasn't been on the shelves long enough for me to get my first royalty check yet, but if they're really selling that well? Maybe signing all those licensing agreements really was a good way to help my bottom line. What else did they have for me already? I don't remember when but Kotobukiya is releasing a statute of me in their Bishoujo line, and I think I'm getting my own Figuarts figure in their 'Up and Coming' line this month. Oh! And I know how much people love your favorite shirt, so they're making an official Mt. Lady 'LESBIAN' tank top to match."

Rolling her eyes, Carol bumped her shoulder against Yu's before unpausing her game and pressing onward. After all, she had a Tevinter magister to slay, slaves to rescue, and a region to destabilize, and limited free time in which to do it. "You could have used this opportunity to set the record straight and actually get a 'BISEXUAL' shirt produced. You know that, right? I would have bought like, seven. I'd wear them every day when I wasn't on patrol."

"Says the woman who's negotiating the details of her own product line. Have them make an official Carol Corps 'BISEXUAL' shirt. Your growing fan club will make them fly off the shelves." Fair. The pair lapsed into companionable silence broken by the sounds of Carol's game, eventually to be broken by a sigh as Yu nuzzled the smaller blonde's neck. "Are you really going to keep playing games now that I'm here? Because I'm not necessarily suggesting sex or anything, but I feel like we could be making better use of this time than just staring blankly at the television."

Not wanting to hit her girlfriend in the jaw, Carol offered a fainter shrug than normal as she continued to manipulate the controller in her hands. "You're totally suggesting sex, don't lie. And I'm not against having a little fun before bed but, like, this is fun for me too. I spend my entire day narrowly focused on a single thing and so when I get home, it's nice to just... decompress and do something mindless for a bit. Slay some monsters. Level my elf mage. Besides, if there's one thing that Peter imparted that's still true today, it's that nerdiness is in. Gamer girls are hot. This is me being a hot girlfriend. Don't mess with it."

Yu scoffed at that, reaching out to try and take the controller away from Carol. A brief scuffle broke out, Carol trying to squirm out of her girlfriend's arms and escape across the couch to limited success. "I still can't believe that you're only a passable teenager because you adopted an orphaned hero back in your original universe and he taught you as much as you taught him."

Well, 'adopted' and 'orphaned' were probably too strong of words for her relationship with Peter, Carol mused, although to be fair she couldn't think of a better way to describe it off the top of her head. After Tony's death during the Battle of the New Avengers Facility, the recently rematerialized Peter had been lost and adrift: a stranger in a strange land who had lost one of his guiding lights. So Carol had done her best to take the young man under her wing, helping him ease back into his life as a hero while teaching him a few things about saving the innocent that Tony hadn't been able to. In return, she'd gotten a crash course on 2018 Earth culture, which thanks to the post-Snap stagnation of the planet, was essentially the same as 2023 Earth culture. She'd learned about popular music, celebrities, what memes were, and how to dab.

That last one had been one of Bruce's favorites when taking pictures with younger fans. It seemed to be passing fair popular in her new home as well, especially with the Amekaji types.

Finally wriggling out of Yu's grasp, Carol began to glow faintly as she floated up off the couch, suspending herself safely near the ceiling where Yu couldn't reach her. Or at least, couldn't reach her at her base size. "You want my controller? Come and get it."

"Oh, that's just not fair." Rising to her feet, Yu stretched her arms upward as she jumped after Carol, her scowl growing with each attempt that ended in failure. "You know I can't use my quirk like that. Why do you keep doing this?"

Floating a bit lower, Carol dangled the controller from the end of her fingertips, carefully placing it just out of reach for Yu's next jump. "Because he might have provided the seed for the idea that saved the universe, but Scott Lang was a grade A idiot. And if he can manage to manipulate his mind and body to control how tall he got with his chemically-created powers, I refuse to believe that someone as smart and determined as my girlfriend can't do the same thing."

Yu let her arms drop to her sides as she stared up at Carol adoringly. "Aww, that's really sweet. It doesn't make up for how mean you're being with this whole thing, but it was still sweet."

"Let's raise the stakes." Unzipping the front of her kigu, Carol let out a snort of laughter as Yu's eyes widened appreciatively, only for the older blonde to pout disappointedly when Carol's hand vanished inside and returned with her smartphone. "Winner of the controller war picks dinner. And I should probably warn you that I found an Indian place on Demae-Can and I'm in the mood for curry tonight."

Eyes widening in horror, Yu started jumping into the air more frantically. "There's no way I'm letting you pick dinner. The last time I let you order, the food liquified my insides. I got to spend an entire day catching up on my paperwork because I was afraid to go too far from the bathroom."

Carol snickered softly, dangling the controller a bit lower before yanking it back out of reach at the last possible second. "Yeah, Indian food is great, isn't it? Or we could have as many takoyaki as you can fit in your stomach, hold the aonori. If... you can take the controller away from me."

"I won't let you ruin my butt again!" Eyes narrowing in determination, Yu crouched down a bit and then thrust her arms upward... and upward... and then she smashed her head against the ceiling but didn't penetrate it. Flailing blindly, she managed to wrap her enlarged hand around the controller before a stunned Carol could react, collapsing back onto her ass as she held her trophy high. "I... did it? I did it!"

Floating down to land on top of Yu, Carol straddled her girlfriend's lap, having to spread her legs a bit further to accommodate her girlfriend's wider than usual hips. Not that Yu didn't have a pair of hips on her normally, because hot damn was her girlfriend curvy. She was just curvier at... eight, possibly nine feet tall than she was at five feet four inches. "That's my girl! I knew you could do it! All it took was the right motivation."

Yu grinned, using her free hand to pluck Carol's phone out of her grasp, holding it high enough over both their heads that Carol couldn't reach it when she made a half-hearted grab for it. "The threat of being forced to eat hot shrimp curry again was evidently all the motivation I needed." Pressing her finger against the right spot on Carol's phone, the blonde frowned as the locked phone failed to react. "I know that you've got my finger keyed into your phone. I've seen me use it."

Groaning, Carol reached up and dragged Yu's arm back down until her hand was within reach, wrapping her comparatively small fingers around her girlfriend's thumb to draw attention to the relative difference in their finger sizes. "Yu? Your thumb is almost twice the size that it normally is right now. Of course my phone's not going to be able to read it."

"...that's quirk-based discrimination and that's wrong." Yu pouted as she pressed her thumb against the phone a few more times from different angles before ultimately giving up. "I'm suing."

Carol sighed before floating up off of Yu and retaking control of her phone. "You're also naked." Sure enough, Yu's unexpected height multiplication had shredded the street clothes that she'd shown up wearing, leaving her wearing the tattered remains of her shirt and jeans, along with a few scraps of purple fabric that must have been her bra and panties in another lifetime. "How about you go change while I order you the world's largest pile of takoyaki as a reward for finally breaking through that mental block on your powers?"

After considering that for a moment, Yu shook her head decisively and snatched the phone back from Carol before shrinking back down to her normal size. "Clothes can wait. I'm not saying that I don't trust you to order dinner for us, but... wait, that's exactly what I'm saying."

"I'm hurt. Hurt, I tell you."

"Not as hurt as my butt was the last time I trusted you to pick out dinner."

"Ugh. You trick a girl into eating hot curry one time and she never lets you forget it..."


	8. Chapter 8

Joe's Note: Hot on the heels of last chapter's Carol and Yu content is another round of Carol and Yu content, guest starring everyone's favorite woobie. Mostly because there's a lingering reader question that I want to address and I can't think of a better environment to address it in. After this, we'll start moving closer to the U.A. Entrance Exam and the school year, so we can get into the meat of the series. Mostly because... well, I could sit and invent villains for Carol to beat down all day. But the entire premise of the story centers around Carol's school adventures. For that, we need Carol to get back to school, don't we?  
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Jade, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Clark, Adrien, erlking, ridillin, Haematite, Charles, Jacky, Edward, Andrew, Roofcrawler, Wil, PbookR, Samuel, Mikey, Beverly, Daniel, Charles, Crygon20, Subtle, Christopher, Stephen, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Joseph, Jason, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Marc, Ziryo, Chris, George, Koby, William, Devin, JJbelle, David, Gavin, TheTenthAncestor, Lookshy, Mauday, John, Roman, Warren, and Jess for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

* * *

"So I completely understand that you're still going to have some secrets from me because they're All Might's secrets to tell, not yours... but can you at least explain to me why he has two sidekicks all of a sudden? Two successors? Two... whatever you and Midoriya are? What's the point? Doesn't he think that you're good enough to do the job on your own?"

Sitting on a blanket on the edge of Dagobah Beach, Carol wrapped her arm around her indignant-sounding girlfriend's shoulders, giving her a squeeze as they watched Izuku haul another load of trash across the hot sand toward the awaiting truck. "It's not that he doesn't think I'm good enough so much as... well, All Might's going to be leaving some awfully big shoes to fill. He's got his fingers in a lot of pies. And so he's grooming the two of us separately to take over two completely different parts of his legacy when he retires."

Yu cocked her head to the side, resting it against Carol's as she stared out at where Izuku was slowly but surely dismantling the giant pile of trash that had overtaken Dagobah Beach. "So what, you're the heroic side and Midoriya is his community service side?"

"Not quite. I'm being groomed to serve as the next Symbol of Peace, the fearless hero who always saves people with a smile. And I think we can both agree that I'm good at it, yeah? Take down the villain, reassure the civilians, play to the crowds and reporters... it wasn't what I thought I'd be doing when I came here, but I'm a natural at it." Carol gestured out at where Izuku was currently fighting with a particularly stubborn washing machine... and how that had managed to wash up on the beach, Carol had absolutely no idea. "Midoriya... All Might has a rogues gallery second to none, and less than a two-thirds capture rate. More than once, he's managed to beat the villain but saving innocents has had to take priority over making the capture. So he's got plenty of unfinished business with very dangerous people who will all want to exploit the vacuum created when All Might eventually retires. That's where Midoriya comes in."

Evidently growing bored with sitting on a blanket and watching the world go by, Yu hopped to her feet and stretched languidly before leaving her sandals behind and padding out onto the soft sand. "And what, All Might doesn't think Midoriya can punch his villains out with a smile or something?"

Carol actually found herself chuckling as Yu raised a point that she'd in fact brought up more than once in her own discussions of the future with All Might. "Oh, he might. And I might end up totally redundant and pulling back from active hero life to work with a support company to develop hybrid Kree/human technology, or maybe help with the day-to-day running of your agency. But what if Midoriya doesn't want to?"

"He's quite possibly All Might's biggest fan." Yu paused, gesturing to where Izuku's Golden Age All Might hoody was lying on the sand near their blanket, before thinking better of things and amending her statement. "Hell, he's every hero's biggest fan; I've literally never met someone who's more of a hero otaku than Midoriya Izuku."

"Okay, but what if he goes through three years at U.A. High and comes out the other side different? What if he wants to take down All Might's nemeses down out of the public eye for the sake of public safety? Essentially become an underground hero? Or what if he never outgrows his social awkwardness and ends up like Endeavor: taking out threats left and right but never able to handle his own public image? Or what if he crosses off all the names on All Might's hit list and then retires? Settles down and becomes a scientist who studies quirks, or gets a teaching job at U.A. High? There's a lot of ifs because he's a middle school kid growing in to the power of a titan. He doesn't even know who he is yet, how can we?" Carol reached up, allowing Yu to pull her to her feet before gesturing to herself. "I'm the contingency plan in case any of that comes to pass."

Wrapping her arms around Carol's neck, Yu leaned down to press a quick kiss to the smaller blonde's lips before resting her forehead against Carol's. "Sometimes I think I've got my life together, and then you open your mouth and I realize that I'm pretty much just making shit up as I go along."

Carol giggled softly at that, rubbing her nose against Yu's before kissing her girlfriend again. "Don't worry. My shit's together enough for the both of us. Just keep doing what you're doing and I'll lead you where you need to go."

"Have I ever told you how hot it is when you get all self-assured and dominant like that?"

"Yes, but you can tell me again if you want." As Yu pulled her closer, their bodies molding against each other's, a flash of green in the corner of Carol's eye made her turn her head to the side. Standing there looking like an excited puppy was Izuku, volume thirteen of his 'Hero Analysis for the Future' clutched in his hands. "Can we help you? We were kinda having a moment over here."

Blushing faintly, Izuku held up his notebook in both hands, bouncing lightly on his toes. "You told me that if I could make it all the way until three o'clock without bothering Takeyama, you'd let me ask her five questions for my notes. And, well, it's three. I made it. Right?"

Carol groaned, burying her face in Yu's neck. "You couldn't have waited another like, five minutes?"

"No? You told me three o'clock. And it's three."

Ugh.

* * *

"I'm sorry, miss, but all of our rooms are either occupied at the moment or have preexisting reservations that are starting soon."

Carol blinked owlishly at the karaoke center's receptionist before turning to Yu with a look of consternation on her face. "Evidently the fame train has come to a crashing halt when faced with the juggernaut that is peak hours at Karaokekan. And Shidax and Big Echo. Who would have thunk it?"

Glancing down at herself for a moment, Yu met Carol's gaze again before shrugging helplessly. "I even wore some of my own merchandise so I'd be more identifiable. I knew it was going to be busy out here tonight but I figured that between the two of us, they'd be able to miraculously make room for us because they'd want us to patronize their establishment or... something."

"Evidently not." Carol turned back to the receptionist and affected the best polite bow that she could, a mannerism that she was still trying to master to fit in better with Japan's more formal culture. "Our apologies for bothering you this even-"

There was a soft croaking noise and then green edged into Carol's field of vision, a large hand rising into sight as someone waved to get her attention. The blonde followed the hand back along a more normal sized arm to a short but surprisingly cute girl with a slight hunch, large black eyes, and a wide mouth that dipped down slightly in the middle. She almost reminded Carol of... a frog? "None of the girls that I invited from school have shown up, and singing by myself sounds really boring. Would you two like to join me?"

Their evening was saved! Carol exchanged a high five with Yu before turning back to their savior and nodding eagerly. "Yu and I haven't had a real night off in weeks and we were hoping to have some fun tonight. This was the third karaoke center we tried; everywhere is full at this time of night on a Friday. If you really don't mind sharing with us, we'd love to share a room with you. Miss..?"

"Asui Tsuyu. Call me Tsu. Kero." Slipping in front of Carol, Tsuyu stretched upward and rested her hands on the counter. "Asui, party of... three, it appears. We'll be staying for all three hours that I reserved, or at least I will. And since at least I'm underage... I'll start the evening with a Coke."

Chuckling, Carol rested one hand on Tsuyu's surprisingly firm shoulder as she leaned forward. If their generous benefactor was ordering now, presumably this was one of those karaoke establishments that had at least a one drink minimum for guests. "I'm not old enough to drink either, so it'll be Coke for me too. And Yu will have..."

"A matcha hai." Yu did her best to look innocent as Carol eyed her balefully, then switched to crossing her arms over her chest defensively when playing innocent didn't get her anywhere. "What? I need some liquid courage if I'm going to be doing karaoke. And a matcha hai barely has any alcohol in it. It's not like I'm ordering saké or anything."

Carol nodded in concession to that point before deciding to back off for the time being. This was her first time seeing Yu drink; maybe the blonde could handle her alcohol better than some of the other people that Carol had met over the years. And if she did turn out to be a sloppy drunk, well, Carol always throw her girlfriend over her shoulder and carry her back to what had essentially become their apartment over the past few months. "Fine. Coke, coke, and a matcha hai. Delivered to room..?"

After consulting the computer in front of her for a moment, the receptionist smiled and handed them a rather hefty binder. "Room 27. Please enjoy your time with us, Miss Asui... and guests."

"Kero." Pulling away from the counter, Tsuyu dropped to all fours and hopped forward like a frog, leading the way toward their assigned room. Exchanging bemused looks, Carol and Yu followed behind obediently as the green-haired girl expertly navigated the halls to karaoke box 27, opening the door for them before cocking her head to one side as she realized they were both looking at her rather than at the room. "Kero?"

Carol chuckled softly before reaching out to pat Tsuyu on the top of her head, hoping it wasn't too forward of her. "You're cute. It's probably stating the obvious, but... frog quirk?" Opening her mouth, Tsuyu flicked her tongue out several inches retracting it, and Carol nodded decisively. "Frog quirk. Cool. I haven't met many mutant-type quirks yet... at least that I haven't had to punch and then detain until the cops showed up." Letting out a soft noise of understanding, Tsuyu hopped forward and into the room, leaving Carol free to lean over and whisper to Yu. "Did you see that tongue? I think I felt my cervix twitch."

Letting out a choked gasp, Yu blushed darkly and swatted Carol on the arm. "Can you not? She's maybe your age if we're lucky. Possibly a year or two younger. I don't need to be having those kinds of thoughts about her."

"You have those sort of thoughts about me and I'm her age. And she's definitely my age. Don't you recognize the name? Asui Tsuyu is one of the girls on that list I... borrowed... from All Might." As Yu tried to come up with a suitable comeback, Carol grinned wickedly and entered the karaoke room, looking around curiously. It was a bit cramped for her tastes, given that her karaoke experience consisted entirely of going to bars with Maria... but it would do. "Just out of curiosity, the 'kero' thing... is that conscious expression or more of a tic?"

Tsuyu blushed faintly, bringing her finger up to worry at the corner of her mouth as she stared up at Carol. "A little bit of both? I do it without thinking sometimes, but other times I use it to express myself. Why?"

Gesturing to the binder that Tsuyu was still holding, Carol took it from the smaller girl and began flipping through it, quickly finding the English section and scrolling down one page after another in search of a particular song. "Because if they have one of the songs that I really like, I think it'd be hilarious to watch you sing it. Repeat after me, just with kero... hello."

"Kero."

"Hello!"

"Kero!"

"Hellllo!"

"Kerrrro!"

Finally finding the song that she was looking for, Carol let out a triumphant cry before darting forward, punching the five digit code into the karaoke machine. "This is literally one of the greatest American rock songs of all time. It's so amazing that it even made its way to my home planet; it's been covered by like, six of my favorite Kree bands too."

As Carol turned and gestured impatiently for Yu to enter the room, the taller blonde obeying and closing the door behind her, Tsuyu reached forward and hesitantly pushed the 'select' button on the touch screen. Within seconds, the room was filled with the thrumming of an electric guitar and the beat of drums. "Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit." A bit unsurely at first, Tsuyu began bobbing her head to the beat of the song, her wide mouth slowly curling up in a smile. "I'm usually not a fan of English songs, but this is pretty cool. I like this."

Picking up one of the mics, Carol turned and tossed it to Tsuyu, who snatched it deftly out of the air. "Then let's hear what you've got, Frogger."


	9. Chapter 9

Joe's Note: One of the shortcomings of third person semi-limited narratives is that we see very little outside of what's directly relevant to the main character. Sure, _My Hero Academia_ cuts away from Izuku now and then to show what's going on with other characters but it's always to reinforce the greater narrative of Deku's rise to become the number one hero. Well, with the possible exception of 'Everyone's Internships', which follows some of his more fan-popular classmates through their internships due to demand to know what happened to them. Oh, and the prologue of _Training of the Dead_. But the Izuku-centric narrative means that our glimpse at the recommendations process is a scant thirty seconds stuffed into the middle of 'What's the Big Idea?'... which means I basically have to make it up as I go along. Although I won't lie: my version is influenced by _Erased Potential_ by theslytherinpaladin. If you haven't read it, give it a look. Great story.  
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Jade, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Clark, Adrien, erlking, ridillin, Haematite, Charles, Jacky, Edward, Andrew, Roofcrawler, Wil, PbookR, Samuel, Mikey, Beverly, Daniel, Charles, Crygon20, Subtle, Christopher, Stephen, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Joseph, Jason, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Marc, Ziryo, Chris, George, Koby, William, Devin, JJbelle, David, Gavin, TheTenthAncestor, Lookshy, Mauday, John, Roman, Warren, and Jess for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

* * *

Soaring through the air as she approached the sprawling U.A. High School campus, Carol's keen eyesight picked out the courtyard where the recommendation students were supposed to be gathering for the afternoon's 'demonstration'. At this point, anything more would have been a mere formality: nearly fifty students had been winnowed down to a mere five through a written exam, a practical test to make sure that they lived up to their sponsors' hype, and a surprisingly brief interview with Principal Nezu, all of which she'd aced. Now all that remained before the beginning of the school year was to meet and mingle, showing off their respective quirks for their future classmates and instructors. And at the moment, she was running late for that gathering.

To be fair, it wasn't entirely her fault. While the last ten months had been spent improving herself in a number of different ways, almost every day had involved fighting crime to one degree or another. Today was no exception and the petty criminals of Musutafu hadn't been willing to respect the fact that Carol. Had. Something. To. Do. Today. She and All Might had been forced to stop no less than three times to apprehend criminals, including one who looked to be the same giant mutant villain that Yu had Canyon Cannoned during her debut. Out on parole and back to his old ways? Carol didn't really care. All she knew was that she was supposed to be somewhere at the moment and yet... she wasn't.

Carol angled herself downward and shot through the air toward the courtyard until she was within yards of her destination. Backflipping to help herself bleed off some momentum, she squelched the warm, thrumming flow of power that was keeping her aloft and dropped neatly to the ground, hitting the courtyard's pavers in a classic three-point landing. "I am here... regretting my choice of entrance." Slowly rising to her feet, she rubbed at her right knee before looking over as All Might landed with a crash beside her. "I don't care how cool you think that looks, I'm never doing it again. Even as tough as I am, I'm going to feel that one for like, a week."

"When did I ever tell you to do a comic-style superhero landing, Carol? I'm a fan of a big entrance, sure, but I tend to land on two feet for a reason: I can absorb the shock with both legs equally. Then again, my costume also has shock absorbing braces for my legs to help soak up the tremendous force of my landings. We might want to look into that for you." Patting her on the back with one massive hand, All Might straightened up with a smile as he looked around. "And I am here... showing off my protégé!"

Still rubbing at her aching knee, Carol trailed behind All Might as the man strode forward, offering his hand to the nearest hero and mentee pair... which just so happened to be Endeavor and the boy who could only be his son. The blonde's lip curled upward in disgust as the flame-themed hero scoffed at All Might's overture; they were fucking adults in a social setting, she thought, surely he could be polite to his rival for propriety's sake? Evidently not, though, and All Might quickly moved on to the next pair of attendees, leaving Carol and Shoto to size each other up as Endeavor huffed and pulled out his phone, burying himself in work.

Todoroki Shoto was... exactly as advertised, Carol decided, nothing more and nothing less. Clocking in at five and a half inches taller than her deaged form, he was in good shape without being muscular enough to seem imposing to the average person. The burn scar over the left side of his face ruined any chance he really had of being handsome, instead helping to push him further into what most people would find intimidating. Carol wasn't, though. Intimidated, that was. She'd fought fucking Thanos hand-to-hand to stop him from using the Infinity Gauntlet on her and her friends. It would be a cold day in hell before any teenager made her nervous.

Unless maybe one of her classmates turned out to be a future supermodel or something. Every now and again, a pretty woman managed to fluster even her suave self.

As Shoto continued to stare off into space, refusing to acknowledge her any more than his father had acknowledged All Might, Carol scoffed dismissively and turned to follow her mentor. Who had already made his way past the unsettling-looking Honenuki Juzo and his sponsoring hero to greet a girl with shoulder-length green curls... and what looked like a miniature version of Godzilla from the hammy foreign sci-fi movies that she and Maria had watched together during their down time. Stepping up to the girl, Carol offered her hand. "Carol... err, Danvers Carol. I also go by Captain Marvel. And you've got to be Tokage Setsuna, right?"

Setsuna nodded eagerly, detaching one of her hands and floating it across the intervening space so that she could offer it to Carol to shake. "I don't have a hero name yet, but I was thinking of maybe calling myself Lizardy. You know, for obvious reasons. But enough about me. You know who I am?"

"Well yeah. You're cute and going to be in my year at U.A. High School. Of course I learned what I could about you." Carol shot the girl a playful wink before closing the distance between them so that she could return Setsuna's hand. "Your quirk is awesome. I mean, I don't think I'd want to split into fifty-something pieces but I can only imagine how many things you can do with it."

Setsuna blushed faintly as she offered a shrug in response to Carol's praise. "If you heard 'fifty-something' pieces then someone's been exaggerating; it's exactly fifty pieces at the moment, no more no less. And it does have its uses. I'm obviously not going to be a front line hero like you and All Might, but I'm hoping to establish myself as a premiere spying and infiltration hero."

Nodding, Carol brought one hand up and curled it into a fist, bumping it against her chest in a gesture that she'd adopted from All Might over the past months in his care. "Not everyone can make a career out of punching things to death. Someone has to go in and find out where the villains are, or get their hostages out. You'll be great at that. Who knows, maybe someday when I've taken over All Might's agency, I'll be able to hire you to be our intelligence specialist."

"I'll keep that in mind. For now, I'm going to focus on getting through the next three years. I've got a lot of milestones to conquer before I'm a pro hero: six semesters of school, three Sports Festivals, the Provisional Hero Licensing Exam..." Setsuna shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest as she shot a playfully jealous look Carol's way. "Unlike some people, that is. I can't believe you already have your Provisional Hero License. Do you realize how rare that is?"

Carol nodded sheepishly; while she would have stuck out from her peers at U.A. no matter what due to her other worldly origin and position as All Might's heir apparent, she'd actually done a bit of research to find out how badly she would stick out once the school year began. "I'm literally the first person under the age of fifteen to be issued one in the history of the PHL. Almost makes me wish that bureaucracy is as slow here as on Hala; I was only three weeks away from turning fifteen when I got it."

Reaching out, Setsuna patted Carol on the shoulder. "At first I wondered why Juzo and I were assigned to class 1-B together, but now I know. There's no denying that we have the potential to be great heroes someday, but we just can't compete with powerhouses like you and Shoto. Yaoyorozu, on the other hand... I'm not so sure about."

"Oh? She's the only one I haven't talked to yet." Carol took a step back and leaned to one side, peering past All Might to where a regal-looking girl with black hair and an amazing rack was standing primly at attention between two people who could only be her parents. "Her quirk is definitely interesting. The ability to create anything she can think of as long as she understands how it's made and it's not organic?"

Setsuna shrugged. "So I'd detach a hand and punch her in the face while she's focusing on creating something that can take me down. Fight's over. I win."

Opening and closing her mouth soundlessly, Carol struggled to come up with a response to that. Because Setsuna had a good point: Creation was a strong quirk but not necessarily a front-line hero quirk. And if her and Shoto were anything to go by, that's what class 1-A was aiming to be: front line heroes in the fight against evil. "Well, to be able to use her quirk, she's got to be a bona fide genius. Maybe she's applied that to learning self-defense techniques or something? So she would dodge your punch, close the distance, punch you back, and then create something that would take you down?"

"...maybe. Because you're probably right about her having to be a genius with a quirk like that. Huh." Setsuna raised both hands in surrender, shaking her head slowly. "I take it back. You can have her in class 1-A. I'm not sure I want to compete against someone like that for my class ranking."

Carol winced at that; she'd never thought about that before now, but she was actually going to have to worry about her grades and how she stacked up against others once she got to school. Fantastic. At least she'd have an unfair advantage when it came to her Math and English classes? "Well, all this talk about Yaoyorozu has got me curious about her. I'm gonna go say hi. Wanna come with me?"

After looking back and forth between Carol and her sponsor several times, Setsuna ultimately shook her head. "Nah, I've got plenty of time to talk with her once school starts in April. While today is obviously my day to shine, it's also our day: this is the first time that Gojiro has recommended a student who was accepted into U.A. High. So I'm going to stay with him. Just sorta soak things in."

"Fair enough. It was nice meeting you. See you next month." With one last wave, Carol was moving on, making her way over to where Momo was standing. Or should she think of her as Yaoyorozu in her head? She got away with calling Yu by her given name because they were dating, but Japan as a whole seemed a lot more formal. Yeah, she decided, better make it Yaoyorozu just to cut down on the number of verbal accidents she had. And for that matter, Tokage and Honenuki and Todoroki. Coming to a stop in front of the girl in question, Carol looked her up and down slowly before deciding to skip the niceties and cut straight to the chase. "What counts as 'understanding' when it comes to your quirk?" Raising her left arm, she let her fingers dance over her gauntlet, generating a Bohr model of a very particular atom over her palm. "Like... could you make this element for me just from knowing what its atomic structure is?"

Yaoyorozu blinked owlishly at the question, gesturing first to herself and then to Carol. "Hello, my name is Yaoyorozu Momo and you are Danvers Carol. Let's pretend for etiquette's sake that you actually obeyed such niceties before launching into such a line of questioning, shall we?" Carol rolled her eyes, gesturing for Yaoyorozu to continue. "To answer your question? In theory, yes. Although I've never seen an element quite like this before. Is it something extraterrestrial? From your homeworld?" After a moment's hesitation, Carol nodded slowly; yes, she decided, they'd go with that for the moment. "I see. Well, I see no harm in trying."

Watching with rapt attention as Yaoyorozu held out her right hand, Carol sucked in a breath as multicolored motes of light danced over the girl's skin and then a glowing blue rock emerged from her palm. "I... holy shit. What sort of drawbacks does your quirk have beyond you needing to know how to make something? You can't just make things endlessly, can you?"

"I... nobody's ever asked me that before. Or at least nobody my age. They never think any further than the fact that it works." Blushing at the faintly worshipful look on Carol's face, Yaoyorozu rolled the piece of silvery metal around in her hand for a few seconds before offering it to Carol. "To answer your question, though? Lipids. I convert lipids to power my quirk. So I need to eat to fuel my quirk, or risk developing anemia."

Carol let out a low whistle as she took the piece of raw vibranium from Yaoyorozu, scanning it quickly with her suit to verify that it was what it appeared to be. It was. Given that she lacked the tools and metalworking knowledge of Wakanda, she'd need to have Yaoyorozu mold it into the exact shape and size that she required using her quirk, but Carol doubted that would be an insurmountable obstacle for someone who could pull an entire scooter out of her body during the practical exam. "So what you're telling me is that as long as I provide you with lots of food, you can keep producing what's literally one of the most valuable substances in the entire universe? In that case... Yaoyorozu Momo, are you free for dinner tomorrow night?"

"I... you're very forward, aren't you?"

"That's not a no, right?"

* * *

**Up next, we'll actually have a flashback chapter that was conceived in response to ****Malchior's very well thought out review a chapter or two ago. I debated it for a bit before deciding that he had made some very valuable points that I wanted to address in the story... and couldn't address terribly organically in a future chapter. So if you're wondering how Carol and Momo's dinner date will work out, you'll have to wait until Chapter 10 rolls around. Mostly because that'll give me more time to reread _The Undead Schoolgirl: Dead Pulse_ by Wickerbot and make sure that I've got all my ducks in a row regarding the brilliant Quirk Instability Classification system that he created for his story.**


	10. Chapter 10

Joe's Note: And we're back with more Momo/Carol content. Technically more Momo/Carol/Yu content because what self-respecting girl is going to let her girlfriend take another girl - much less one as hot as Momo - out for an expensive dinner? Seeing as how it'll come up in this chapter, and I always like to give credit where credit is due? The idea of 'quirk instability' is shamelessly cribbed from _The Undead Schoolgirl: Dead Pulse_ by Wickerbot. Honestly, though? It really makes sense and falls in line with my own thoughts when I first watched _My Hero Academia_. Namely that while Izuku's behavior makes a certain degree of sense due to over a decade of outright abuse and bullying by almost everyone around him, there has to be something outright wrong with some - nay, most - of his classmates to explain why they behave the way they do. Well, beyond 'the creator put about as much thought into the side characters as J.K. Rowling did and so they're all one-dimensional anime tropes', that is.  
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Jade, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Clark, Adrien, erlking, ridillin, Haematite, Charles, Jacky, Edward, Andrew, Roofcrawler, Wil, PbookR, Samuel, Mikey, Beverly, Daniel, Charles, Crygon20, Subtle, Christopher, Stephen, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Joseph, Jason, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Marc, Ziryo, Chris, George, Koby, William, Devin, JJbelle, David, Gavin, TheTenthAncestor, Lookshy, Mauday, John, Roman, Warren, and Jess for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

* * *

The first thing that Carol noticed when she arrived at RyuGin was that she was just on the cusp of being underdressed for the occasion. While the red, blue, and gold dress that she was wearing - a present from a designer who was attempting to woo her into promoting a new line of women's clothes patterned after her costume - was tasteful enough, it was just barely fancy enough for the setting based on what she was seeing of the other patrons waiting to be seated. Thank God that she'd actually bothered to dress up, she mused, instead of showing up in her standard Yu date attire of a t-shirt and jeans.

The second thing that Carol noticed was that Yu had broken their not at all unspoken rule of no costumes on non-patrol dates, and so there was a good chance that her and Momo would be dining on their own that evening.

The third thing that Carol noticed was that Momo was even more stacked than she'd initially appeared when wearing her school uniform. If more than a handful was a waste - a mentality that Carol didn't agree with at all, mind you - then God had been especially wasteful when it came to Momo. Damn. That was the kind of cleavage that a girl could get capsized trying to motorboat.

What a way to go, though.

Doing her best to banish her inappropriate thoughts - and thankfully succeeding at least to some degree - Carol took Yu by the hand and led her over to where Momo was patiently waiting for them near the maître d'hôtel. Offering the black-haired teen a sheepish smile, she nodded her head in Yu's direction. "In my defense, I actually did talk her into dressing up for the evening. Unfortunately, her patrol ran a bit long and, well, here we are. I hope it's not going to be a problem for our plans?"

Momo quirked an eyebrow inquiringly as she turned to the maître d'hôtel, whose face twitched a bit but managed to remain mostly expressionless as he shook his head. "While generally speaking our dress code is quite clearly defined for our patrons so there are no possible misunderstandings, we do of course make exceptions for professional heroes to whom work is unkind on the day that they visit our fine establishment. If you'd be so kind as to follow me?"

Following behind obediently as the maître d'hôtel led them into the restaurant proper, Carol found herself caught between wanting to watch Momo's swaying hips and investigating who else was dining at the elite restaurant that evening. She ended up settling for the former after a brief attempt at the latter; if there were any other heroes in attendance at the moment, they were ranked below the top fifty and she didn't recognize them. Apart from heroes, she was admittedly rather culturally ignorant and so she had no idea who was currently popular and why. She could be surrounded by musical or acting royalty at the moment... and she'd never know it. Giving it up as a bad job, she decided to settle for keeping her eyes fixed on Momo's posterior... right up until Yu cuffed her none too gently. "Could you at least try to be a little bit more subtle?"

"I have gotten exactly nowhere in life by being subtle or indecisive when I want something. Or are you forgetting how we ended up dating? Or who's taken the first step every other time in our relationship?" Carol chuckled softly as Yu opened her mouth to respond only to come up short, mouth hanging slightly open as she struggled to formulate an answer. Leaning in, Carol gave her girlfriend a quick peck on the corner of her mouth before patting her shoulder. "I'm taken, not dead. I'm allowed to look. And it's just looking. If I want to touch, you'll be the first to know... and I won't without your permission."

Coming to a stop in front of their table, Momo offered their host a shallow bow before pulling out her own chair and taking a seat. "For the record, I am your guest for the evening and you should have been courteous enough to offer to seat me. Seeing as how you didn't... let's continue and hope your behavior improves from here." Blushing faintly, Carol and Yu quickly took seats on the opposite side of the table, Carol making a point of pulling out Yu's chair for her and then pushing it back in. "Also, our interactions will go much smoother if in the future, you could refrain from discussing me like I'm a piece of meat at the market. With behavior like that, I'm going to assume that your respective quirk instability classes are in the neighborhood of a five, possibly a six? Either that, or you're just spectacularly impolite and socially inept."

Carol raised an eyebrow at the question, not entirely sure how to respond to an inquiry that was completely outside of her knowledge base, while Yu let out a faintly scandalized gasp as her blush darkened. "That's... not exactly something that you discuss in polite company, is it?"

"Would you really consider yourself or your girlfriend to be 'polite' company at this point, Miss Takeyama?" Momo shot a challenging look at Yu as the older woman winced and shook her head, the dark-haired girl looking from Yu to Carol and then back as the maître d'hôtel placed three sheets of paper on the table before departing. "I've decided to likewise dispense with pleasantries at this point, seeing as how you've been nothing but crude and far too forward with me so far. Which I'll admit that I find perplexing, seeing as how we're ostensibly here so that you can convince me to enter into some form a partnership with you so that you can harness my ability to produce that extraterrestrial metal that's apparently so valuable to you."

"First of all, in my defense, you come from a much more formal and polite culture than I do. Forgive me for having some growing pains when it comes to fitting in around here." Granted, the worst of her 'crudeness' and 'forwardness' were her younger body's hormones causing her mouth to work faster than her brain on occasion, but Carol was actively working on that. She's managed to keep from sharing what she knew were inappropriate thoughts about Momo's body, even if Yu had called her on her obvious appreciation of the black-haired girl's form. Small victories, yeah? "Second of all, what's a quirk instability class? Because Yu obviously knows what you're talking about but I can't really answer that question if I have no idea what you're talking about."

Staring at her in disbelief, Momo opened her mouth to respond only to be brought up short and sit there staring at Carol instead. Finally, after nearly a minute, the dark-haired girl shook her head slowly. "I've heard the interviews, of course, but I thought they were all some sort of elaborate hoax. You really are an alien among us, aren't you?" Carol raised an eyebrow before nodding slowly; what did that have to do with Momo's initial question or her own request for clarification? "Quirk instability classes are an intrinsic part of our culture. They define how much your quirk influences your thought patterns, and how that affects your ability to interact normally in society. We normally get assigned our initial class when our quirk first manifests and we undergo quirk counseling to understand the intricacies of our new powers. As our powers - and our control of them - mature over time, that value can change for better or worse."

Yu leaned over a bit, lowering her voice so that her words wouldn't easily carry to the other side of the table. "That Bakogou asshole that Midoriya talks about is probably a five or a six. Since his entire body is built to create and harness his explosions, his quirk instability means that he probably has a hard time comprehending how much damage he's doing to other people when he uses his quirk on them. The lower your number, the more functional you are by society's standards. Anything seven or higher, you go on a government watch list and get assigned a monitor."

Letting out a soft noise of comprehension, Carol looked from Yu to Momo and then back as her own eyebrows slowly rose. "The more you know, I guess? Now you've got me curious, though. What's your quirk instability class? Is she right about you being a six? Obviously I don't care but if your quirk influences how you think... well, I suppose it would explain a few things about you."

"If you must know, I was actually downgraded from a five to a four at my last evaluation. I'm still prone to grandiose and attention-seeking behavior and the desire to be larger than life - literally, most of the time - but the work we've been putting into mastering my quirk has lessened those traits." Yu reached out to cover one of Carol's hands with her own at that admission, perking up a bit by the end. "So thanks for that. It turns out that you're not just making me a better hero, you're making me a better person at the same time."

Carol grinned at that, leaning over to give Yu a quick peck on the lips. "Glad to hear it. As for my own quirk instability class... I don't have one, obviously. Mostly because I don't have a quirk. I'm registered as having one because the alternative was trying to explain how I was a quirkless hero with powers... but I've never done quirk counseling or anything like that. So no rating on your handy dandy little mental evaluation scale. Sorry. Doesn't mean I'm necessarily normal, mind you, but that's not what you asked. Now that we've shown you ours... turnabout seems like fair play. What's your class?"

Various emotions flitted over Momo's face before settling on a more nonplussed expression than Carol had been expecting given that they were discussing what was evidently a societally taboo subject. "I'm a four as well. Mostly because I don't see anything wrong with using my powers to circumvent the traditional economic system." Furrowing her brow, she brought her hands together and then drew them apart, her palms crackling with power as she created a golden bracelet studded with what Carol could only assume were rubies and sapphires. The entire thing complimented her dress spectacularly, and so the blonde wasn't at all surprised when Momo offered it to her after a moment's hesitation. "If I want something, I can just make it for myself rather than needing to obtain it through more traditional channels. The government finds that... concerning."

"So what I'm hearing is that if I want a purse but can't afford it, you're the girl to talk to?" Carol chuckled at the exasperated look her question earned her, waving her hand dismissively before lowering it back down to the table so she could slide the bracelet on and clasp it. "I'm kidding. I'm not a very materialistic person and between All Might and my sidekick pay, I've got everything I need and most of what I want."

Momo nodded in approval at that before eyeing Carol shrewdly. "Except for when it comes to your mystery metal, it would appear. Which brings me to another question: heroes are supposed to be selfless and giving, but I'm not entirely sure that covers using my powers to enrich you. Why exactly should I help you create more of... does this metal have a name? I'm getting tired of referring to it as 'your extraterrestrial metal' or the like."

Nodding, Carol reached down and slipped her hand into the small but functional purse that she'd decided to carry for the evening, pulling out a thin sheaf of paper. Smoothing the sheets out on the table, she turned them to face Momo. "The word you're looking for is 'vibranium'. And you should help me because you'd be getting something out of it too. I got my hands on the costume designs that you submitted to U.A. High. Allow me to submit the counterproposal that I'd like you to send in tomorrow morning."

Hesitantly picking up the papers, Momo glanced from them to Carol and back. "You've seen my costume design already?"

Carol just shrugged innocently in response. "I'm All Might's apprentice. Sidekick. Successor. Some or all of the above. I have access to a lot of things that the average person doesn't."

"You want to have them make me a bodysuit out of a woven blend of Dyneema, your vibranium, and... my own hair?" Momo's face cycled through expressions as she deciphered Carol's barely legible handwriting, going from thoughtful to uncertain to faintly disgusted. Looking up from the paper she was holding, Momo furrowed her brows. "My hair?"

Reaching over, Carol tugged lightly on the sleeve of Yu's hero costume. "Nine times out of ten, when you incorporate your own DNA into your costume? Your quirk recognizes it as part of your own body. So Yu's costume grows with her because it's infused with her DNA and your costume-"

Momo's eyes went wide as she realized where Carol was going with her thought process. "I wouldn't need to have exposed skin to produce my creations, they would be able to pass cleanly through my bodysuit without being obstructed and tearing the garment. That's brilliant." Glancing back down at the paper, she frowned again. "It's very... black... though. Dark and foreboding generally isn't something a hero considers to be an acceptable costume."

"They only make Dyneema in white and black, and I figured that trying to keep a white suit clean while being heroic would be exhausting." Carol reached out, flipping through the pages that Momo was holding before gently tugging the next to last sheet out and placing it on top. "If I ever give up my Starforce armor, I was considering a design something like this. Do you think you can make colored Dyneema a reality? Because then that'd open up a lot of options for both of our costumes."

Eyes sparkling with excitement as they bounced back and forth between the drawing and Carol, Momo grinned widely. "A challenge. I haven't faced one of those in quite some time. I'll try my hand at creating red Dyneema for both our sakes... after we finish our meal. My parents have made it quite clear that it's impolite to create things at the dinner table."

Carol nodded in acceptance before looking down at the papers that the maître d'hôtel had left behind. "I'm not the best at reading Japanese yet, but this seems more like a list of dishes than a menu?"

"RyuGin is considered the quintessential kaiseki experience here in Tokyo. That list is the details of the courses that we'll be experiencing tonight, most of them made of seasonal ingredients that are locally sourced."

"Wait, what? I'm going to have to wait through all these courses to find out if my idea will work?"

"And I intend to savor my food."


	11. Chapter 11

Joe's Note: After ten chapters of world building and stage setting, it's finally time for Carol's school experience to get underway. Which puts us about a third of the way through Season 1, Episode 5: 'What I Can Do For Now'. Sadly someone had to get cut from the canonical class to make room for Carol, or else I would have ended up with a lot of odd numbers during pair/quartet exercises. So Koda Koji... you will be missed. By someone. Presumably. I gave Koji the axe precisely because he is such a non-presence in the overall story; he doesn't even get his first line until Chapter 66 of the manga. If anyone could safely be removed to make room for Carol without compromising the overall flow of the story... it was him. Which I think reflects on Horikoshi to a degree; literally everyone else in the class gets some degree of attention soon after their respective debuts but Koji goes almost completely unused. Even some of Class 1-B gets fleshed out before him. It makes me wonder what the point of even creating him was.  
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Jade, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Clark, Adrien, erlking, ridillin, Haematite, Charles, Jacky, Edward, Andrew, Roofcrawler, Wil, PbookR, Samuel, Mikey, Beverly, Daniel, Charles, Crygon20, Subtle, Christopher, Stephen, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Joseph, Jason, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Marc, Ziryo, Chris, George, Koby, William, Devin, JJbelle, David, Gavin, TheTenthAncestor, Lookshy, Mauday, John, Roman, Warren, and Jess for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

* * *

Jetting through the air toward her destination, Carol absently munched on a piece of toast as she began her descent toward the sprawling campus of U.A. High. Yu had informed her that she wouldn't be a real Japanese schoolgirl until she ran to school with a piece of toast in her mouth... but running was for chumps when one could fly and even toasted bread had terrible wind resistance.

Coming in for a landing at the U.A. gate, Carol managed to stop just short of putting her feet on the ground and continued on with her slight hover. She still didn't quite understand it but shoe hygiene seemed to be a big thing here in Japan and she only had the pair that she was wearing. Well, on her. She had plenty of shoes at home. But that meant no walking around outside unless she wanted to violate some sort of taboo by tracking dirt all over the floors of her new school. Which she didn't. That sounded like a bad way to start her new school career.

Floating her way in the door, Carol finally touched down as she began wandering through the hallways in search of Classroom 1-A. She was more than a little curious as to what would be awaiting her when she arrived. Yaoyorozu and Todoroki, obviously. Midoriya had managed to eke out a passing score thanks to Rescue Points despite an utterly lackluster showing during the Villain Point portion of the exam. Those three plus her meant... sixteen unfamiliar faces were awaiting her.

Oh, and Tsuyu. The two of them were still texting up a storm all these months later, and the Frog Fatale had managed to score twelfth on the placement exam, which had been good enough for a seat in the vaunted Class 1-A. Although how the placement of students worked, Carol still wasn't entirely sure. Based on the information that she'd surreptitiously acquired from All Might's files, there was no real discernible pattern as to which students ended up in which class, save for the fact that the top three scorers were all in Class 1-A with her.

Finally, after almost five minutes of aimless wandering with a map that did an incredibly poor job of its intended function, Carol found herself standing in front of a massive door with 1-A painted on it in red. It was easily twenty feet tall; nothing compared to Scott or Yu at their best but easily twice as tall as anyone she'd ever seen try to use a door. In theory, a student with a mutation quirk might need that sort of accommodation but at that point... how would they fit into a desk?

"Don't put your feet on the desk!" The first thing that greeted Carol when she opened the door and entered her new classroom was a standoff on the far side of the mostly filled room between a tall boy with blue hair and glasses, and a seated boy whose entire presence just screamed 'delinquent'. "Don't you think that's rude to the U.A. upperclassmen and the people who made the desk?"

Looking up at the bluenette, the seated blond leaned back in his seat before making a derisive noise. "Nope. What junior high did you go to, you extra?"

Clearly taken aback by the rude response, the blue-haired boy rocked back on his heels for a second before taking a deep breath, clearly trying to regain his composure. "I attended Somei Private Academy. My name is Iida Tenya."

"Somei? So you're a damn elite, huh?" Leaning forward, the blond boy finally removed his feet from the desk, planting his hands on the edge as he leaned toward his classmate menacingly. "Looks like I'll have fun crushing you."

Gasping in disbelief, Iida brought his hand up to his chest. "'Crushing'? That's cruel. Do you truly aim to be a hero?"

More than a little bored with the entire tableau, Carol cleared her throat before making a soft clucking sound as she shook her head. "And people wonder why I'm into girls. Teenage boys should be kept in cages until they're mature enough to act like civilized human beings." Stepping into the classroom, she looked around curiously before noticing that a handful of seats remained open. One obviously belonged to Iida, but which one? According to what Yu had told her, seating was assigned at Japanese high schools. There was an open seat behind Tsuyu. D wasn't that far behind A in the alphabet, especially in a classroom as small as this.

Or the seating chart could be something arbitrary instead of alphabetical, at which point no amount of educated guessing would put her in the right seat.

"You! You're Captain Marvel! Danvers Carol! All Might's sidekick!" Breaking away from where he'd been standing near the delinquent boy's desk, Iida made his way over to where Carol was standing at the front of the room and presented his hand. "I'm from the Somei Private Academy. My name is-"

Carol rolled her eyes but took the proffered hand anyway, shaking it before pulling away as she resumed her survey of her classmates. "Iida Tenya. You're Ingenium's little brother. I've read your file." Brushing past him, she made her way over to where a familiar face was sitting in the third row. "You got a haircut? When, on the way to school? Because you sent me a selfie this morning and everything looked the same."

Letting out a soft ribbit of laughter, Tsuyu reached up to run her fingers through the ends of her significantly shortened green hair, the ends now brushing against her shoulders instead of being long enough to reach past her ass even when tied into a rather large bow. "Creative camera angles, kero. I got this done two weeks ago. After our karaoke session, I started researching the grunge era and Courtney Love really resonated with me. Hopefully it's a good look on me."

"It's a very good look on you." Reaching out, Carol hesitated as she remembered how formal and distant Japanese people as a whole seemed to be but when Tsuyu made no move to back away, she slowly brought her hand in to brush against the slightly ragged ends of Tsuyu's green hair. "Yeah, I like this a lot. And it's going to be a lot more practical when it's time to get in touch with your inner Froppy. Can you imagine having to fight with all that weight hanging from the back of your head?"

Tsuyu gave a faint shudder at the question. "That was a major consideration that went into my decision, kero. Not only the weight while fighting, but the prospect of it getting caught on something while I'm moving around... or grabbed by a villain. No thank you. This seems much more rational."

There was a soft chuckle from the doorway, making Carol look back over her shoulder at where Midoriya was standing there uncomfortably... with a large yellow caterpillar looming over him from behind. "Rational is good. I like rational students. Unlike these two who are still standing here in the doorway." Midoriya let out a soft squeak and rushed into the room, diverting toward the blackboard for a moment before making a beeline for the seat between the delinquent and a boy with purple balls for hair. Oh. There was a seating chart on the board. Didn't she feel stupid? A girl with brown hair and a seemingly permanent blush likewise seated herself as the man unzipped his yellow sleeping bag, stepping out to reveal disheveled black clothes and an unusual grey scarf wrapped around his neck. "Danvers. Your seat is between Kirishima and Sato. Please take it. Iida. Your enthusiasm is commendable but you should also be seated."

Looking around, Carol winced as she realized that the files she'd read on her future classmates had a glaring shortcoming: no pictures. "Kirishima?" A boy with spiky red hair gave her a smile full of sharp teeth as he jerked a thumb back over his shoulder at a vacant desk. "Oh, thanks. Okay, you don't have to go in a cage. You're cool."

"It took far too long for you to be quiet and sit down. Time is limited. With the exception of Asui, you kids aren't rational enough." Making his way into the room, the scruffy-looking man sighed as he set his sleeping back down atop his desk. "I'm your homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shota. Nice to meet you." Reaching into his bag, Aizawa pulled out a bundle of blue and white fabric. Placing it atop the podium in the center of the room, he repeated the process again... and again... and again... slowly building a mountain of clothing. "It's kind of sudden, but put this on and go out onto the field."

* * *

"A quirk assessment test?!"

From her spot behind Tsuyu, Carol looked over her classmates in amusement, now a sea of blue and white gym uniforms instead of the grey and green of their normal school uniforms. Everyone other than herself looked blindsided by the revelation, which didn't make any sense to the blonde. They were out on the field. In their gym uniforms. Clearly Aizawa intended for them to do something physical. Raising her hand, the late-entering brunette girl looked clearly distressed by the news. "What about the entrance ceremony? The orientation?"

Aizawa just shook his head in amusement at her question. "If you're going to become a hero, you don't have time for such leisurely events. U.A.'s selling point is how unrestricted its school traditions are. That's also how the teachers run their classes." Turning to face them, their teacher reached up and pulled his cell phone from his pocket. "You kids have been doing these since junior high school, too, right? Physical fitness tests where you weren't allowed to use your quirks. The country still uses averages taken from results from students not using their quirks. It's not rational. Well, the Ministry of Education is procrastinating. Bakugo, you finished at the top of the practical exam, right?"

Unsurprisingly, the boy who Carol had initially labeled as looking like a delinquent was none other than Bakugo Katsuki, Midoriya's childhood tormentor. Somehow, Carol couldn't bring herself to be surprised. "Tch, yeah. Like it was difficult with a group of extras like this for competition."

Ignoring the boy's blustering, Aizawa pulled a softball out of... somewhere... and held it out to Bakugo. "In junior high, what was your best result for the softball throw?"

After a moment's thought, Bakugo puffed up as he looked around challengingly. "Sixty-seven meters." That got a couple of low whistles and Carol could understand why; for a bunch of kids with little to no physical training, that would be an impressive result.

"Then, try doing it with your quirk." Aizawa tossed the ball to Bakugo before gesturing to the white chalk circle that had been marked on the ground. "You can do whatever you want as long as you stay in the circle. Now hurry up and give it all you've got."

Nodding, Bakugo took a few moments to stretch before winding up. "DIE!" With that loud howl, the softball literally exploded its way out of the blond's grip, rocketing up into the sky until it disappeared from view.

The display earned him an approving look from Aizawa, his sharp eyes glancing back and forth between the phone in his hand and the student in front of him. "Know your own maximum first. That is the most rational way to form the foundation of a hero." He held up his phone, displaying Bakugo's final result: seven hundred and five point two meters.

As the rest of the class reacted with shock and awe at the result of Bakugo's 'throw', a pink-haired - and skinned - girl who was probably Ashido Mina based on the files that Carol had read clapped her hands together. "What's this? It looks like fun!"

"We can use our quirks as much as we want! As expected from the hero course!" Carol had no idea who the black-haired boy was but his enthusiasm was commendable and his statement likely true enough.

Suddenly, the mood took an abrupt dive as Aizawa turned a condescending look on them. "'It looks fun', huh? You have three years to become a hero. Will you have an attitude like that the whole time? All right then. Whoever comes in last place after all eight tests will be judged to have no potential, and will be punished with expulsion. We're free to do what we want about the circumstances of our students." Chuckling, Aizawa ran a hand through his lank black hair, pulling it back out of his wide, bloodshot eyes. "Welcome to U.A.'s hero course!"

"Last place will be expelled?" The brunette who Carol was reasonably certain was Uraraka Ochaco by process of elimination - not pink, not invisible, no earphone jacks hanging from her ears, not Tsuyu, not Yaoyorozu - curled her hands into fists as she stared at their teacher intently. "But it's the first day of school! No, even if it wasn't the first day of school, this is too unfair!"

Aizawa scoffed before waving one hand dismissively. "Natural disasters, big accidents, and selfish villains. Calamities whose time or place can't be predicted. Japan is covered with unfairness. Heroes are the ones who reverse those situations. If you wanted to go talk with your friends at McDonald's after school, too bad. For the next three years, U.A. will do all it can to give you one hardship after another. Go beyond. Plus Ultra." Bringing his hand back around in front of himself, he crooked his finger at Uraraka. "Overcome it with all you've got."

From the moment that All Might told her that she'd be enrolling in high school again, Carol had pictured something like her original high school experience. Something soft... simple... easy. The truth seemed to be the furthest thing from that. She wasn't Tony. She knew she was powerful, frighteningly so even, but she wasn't arrogant enough to think that she knew everything. She could always learn more. U.A. High seemed willing - and hopefully able - to teach her how to be an even better hero than she already was. And she couldn't wait.

"All right, demonstration's over. The real thing starts now."


	12. Chapter 12

Joe's Note: It's kinda interesting to read through other people's _My Hero Academia_ fanfics because you can see where they got their access to the source material. Some people keep propagating Tsuyu saying 'gero' instead of 'kero' because they don't know that translates into 'vomit' instead of 'ribbit'. Some people insist on calling it a quirk 'apprehension' test despite that making literally no linguistic or logical sense because that's how certain translations of the original source material have it. And you can always tell the manga fans from the anime fans by whether or not Present Mic talks about Goombas and Thwomps during the presentation before the practical exam. I'm pretty sure my personal exposure is a fansub rather than anything official... which means that my perspective on the content will be slightly different from everyone watching it on Hulu, Crunchy Roll, or Funimation. Hope it's not terribly noticeable?  
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Jade, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Clark, Adrien, erlking, ridillin, Haematite, Charles, Jacky, Edward, Andrew, Roofcrawler, Wil, PbookR, Samuel, Mikey, Beverly, Daniel, Charles, Crygon20, Subtle, Christopher, Stephen, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Joseph, Jason, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Marc, Ziryo, Chris, George, Koby, William, Devin, JJbelle, David, Gavin, TheTenthAncestor, Lookshy, Mauday, John, Roman, Warren, and Jess for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

* * *

**Test One: Fifty Meter Dash**

Glancing over at the diminutive Mineta Minoru, Carol did her best to keep from grinning too excitedly. While obviously their results in each event were being assessed against the class as a whole to determine their placement, it was pretty much a given that she was going to stand out against her competitor in this particular trial. Then she noticed that he was shooting glances over at her rather than keeping his focus on the track. "Can I help you?"

Mineta gave a slight start at the question, his eyes quickly flicking up to meet hers. Carol's gaze in turn narrowed as she realized that he hadn't been staring at her face when she called him out for his inquisitive eyes. "You have incredible thighs."

"Uh, thanks." Carol let one hand stay on the ground as the other reached back, self-consciously smoothing down the blue fabric covering her upper leg now that she was aware someone was staring at it. "Sadly for you, these thighs are already taken. Which is probably for the best; they could crush your head easily."

Mineta's eyes went wide. "Can they?!"

...so he wasn't just a pervert, he was a masochist to boot. Carol made a mental note to watch what she said around the little bastard before turning her attention forward, focusing on the robot at the finish line as it counted down. Releasing the bonds that held her power in check, she felt her feet float up off the starting blocks as a faint golden corona shimmered into existence around her.

The crack of a gunshot marked the start of her heat.

Carol launched herself forward, clearing the fifty meters in the blink of an eye.

"Zero point seven three seconds!"

* * *

**Test Two: Grip Strength**

Staring down at the dynamometer in amusement, Carol gave it an experimental squeeze. The device gave a quick double chirp and a result appeared on the digital screen: 650 kg. Considering the average girl her age would register somewhere in the range of fifteen to twenty-seven kilograms... that wasn't too shabby on her part. Idly, she found herself wondering how she would measure up against Bruce or Thor in that regard. She'd never really gotten a chance to test her strength against the mightiest that the Avengers had to offer.

She lifted her head as one of her classmates whose name she still didn't know let out a surprised noise. "Five hundred and forty kilograms? What are you, a gorilla?" Standing a few feet away, Mineta and the boy who'd spoken were staring up at her most massive classmate, the imposing Shoji Mezo. Shoji had grown hands at the ends of his two left Dupli-Arms, allowing him to bear down on the dynamometer with the grip strength of three hands simultaneously.

Whistling softly, Carol slid her dynamometer behind her back. She'd let the boy enjoy his moment in the spotlight, she decided.

* * *

**Test Three: Standing Long Jump**

Languidly floating her way through the crisp April air, Carol studied the ground as it passed beneath her faintly glowing body. "Can someone show me where the furthest jump so far was? I want to land at least a meter further than that."

Off to the side, Aizawa let out a groan of exasperation. "Letting you participate in this particular test was necessary but the height of irrationality."

* * *

**Test Four: Repeated Side Steps**

Carol shook her head slowly as she watched Mineta ricochet back and forth between two piles made from the balls he could pull off of his head, letting out a vibrating warbling noise that reminded the blonde of someone trying to speak into a fan. "Well, I guess we finally found a test that I won't be coming in first on..."

* * *

**Test Five: Ball Throw**

"He got over seven hundred meters?!"

"Finally, a hero-like record!"

"His finger's swollen! There was the entrance exam, too. He has a strange quirk..."

"It's not very stylish."

Carol let out a low whistle of appreciation as she peered over Aizawa's shoulder, getting a glimpse at the screen on his phone. Seven hundred and five meters was nothing to sneeze at; it would easily propel Midoriya into second place for the event behind Uraraka's score of 'infinity'. Granted she still had to go... but it was a hell of a result from someone who could still barely manage to control One for All to any real degree.

"What's the meaning of this?" Carol was drawn from her thoughts as Bakugo's palms began to crackle and pop, the perpetually angry-looking boy hurling himself forward at the still-recovering Midoriya. "Hey! Tell me what's going on, Deku, you bastard!"

While the jury was still out as to how effective a successor he'd be for All Might and Carol didn't necessarily consider the boy a friend or anything, that didn't mean she was going to let him take an angry ball of explosions to the face. Launching herself forward, she dove and swept Bakugo's legs out from under him, sending the blond tumbling to the ground where she promptly planted herself on his back. "Let's not and say we did, huh?"

Bakugo shot a look of pure loathing back over his shoulder at Carol, peppering the ground with explosions as he thrashed beneath her. "Oy! Get off me! This is between me and Deku, you stupid cu-"

"Finish that sentence and I can guarantee that you'll be leaving this field on a stretcher. Why?" Cracking her knuckles menacingly, Carol drew her right fist back as photonic energy began to gather around it, the air sizzling and crackling ominously as the energy strained to be released. "Because I am here."

There was a sound like a whip cracking and then something stiff but with a distinctly fabric-like texture wrapped around Carol's wrist. "Enough." She looked back to find Aizawa glaring at the three of them, his hair floating around his face as his eyes glowed red. Knowing what his quirk was, she immediately squelched the power flowing through her fist, not wanting to give her classmates a reason to question the official story surrounding her existence. Aizawa gave a gentle tug on the ribbon that was wrapped around her wrist and she raised her hands in surrender, climbing off of the prone Bakugo. "Don't keep making me use my quirk over and over. I have dry eye. Now we're wasting time. Whoever's next, get ready."

Carol watched Bakugo like a hawk as the blond boy climbed to his feet, shooting one last hateful glare at Midoriya before skulking back over to join the rest of the class. After a few seconds hesitation, Midoriya moved to join him and Carol let out a sigh before raising her hand, ably catching the ball that Aizawa tossed her before turning and making her way into the ring. "As a very wise man once told me... in this world, it's either yeet or be yeeted."

Blinking slowly, Aizawa stared at her uncomprehendingly. "...what?"

Winding up, Carol let the energy infused into her by the Space Stone suffuse her entire body, a golden glow spreading over her skin as she grinned widely. "This one's for you, Peter! YEET!"

Just like with Bakugo and Midoriya, the ball exploded out of her hand as she whipped her arm forward, the ball creating visible shockwaves as it broke the sound barrier on its ascent. While it wasn't headed into orbit like Uraraka's attempt, Carol was pretty sure that she'd nailed a solid second place with that throw, a sentiment that was reinforced by the cheerful voice of the scorekeeping robot. "One thousand two-hundred and fifty-seven feet."

A kilometer and a quarter. Not bad compared to how she'd done half a century earlier when her own middle school had put its students through a similar set of tests. Making her way back over to the class, Carol paused in front of Bakugo and leaned in toward the taller boy. "Now imagine what that hand will do to your face if you ever call me that word again."

Bakugo stared down at her, a flicker of fear crossing his face before he managed to regain his confidence, scowling as he broke their stare down. "Tch."

* * *

**Test Six: Sit-ups**

"...twenty-seven... twenty-eight... twenty-nine! Time!"

Carol let out a sigh of relief and flopped back onto the mat. Thirty seconds to pound out as many sit-ups as she could reminded her of her days back in boot camp. Although generally those tests had come in increments of full minutes, while MEXT's assessment test called for half that. "Just give me a second and then we'll swap. Whoo. That was intense. I haven't done something like that in years."

Leaning forward, Ashido rested her arms on Carol's knees before planting her chin atop them, peering down at the winded blonde. "That was awesome. I can't be sure, but I think you just busted out more than any of our classmates. I mean, I was kinda looking around but not too hard because I didn't want to lose count of yours. Having to do it again would suck."

"You're not wrong." Something tickled at her ankle and Carol frowned, lifting her right leg into the air so she could get a better look. Her previously pristine white socks were now dotted with small holes, the skin underneath flushed an angry red. "Although maybe next time you can focus on me just a little harder? I think you ate through my socks while you were holding my ankles."

Blushing a truly adorable lavender color, Ashido brought her hands up to stare at her palms with a betrayed look on her face. "I'm so sorry! Usually I have better control over my quirk than that, Danvers."

Propping herself up on her elbows, Carol smirked up at her classmate. "Eh, what can I say? I'm good at making girls lose control." Chuckling softly as Ashido's blush darkened even further, Carol jerked a thumb at her chest. "And acid burns aside, I can use all the friends in this class I can get... and you're not one of those boys who belong in cages. So call me Carol."

"Mina."

* * *

**Test Seven: Seated Toe Touch**

Grunting softly as she stretched her arms out in front of her, Carol took a moment to soak in her results - twenty-eight centimeters seemed to be the limits of her flexibility - before glancing over at the girl next to her and letting out an impressed whistle. "Holy shit, Mina! Thirty-five centimeters? That's insane!"

Mina shot a smug grin over at the blonde before letting out a grunt of her own, bending just a little bit further forward as her fingers slid down the measuring surface of the sit and reach box. "Make that an even thirty-six. And I'm not even really feeling any strain at this point. I'm just a little limited because... well... yeah." Lifting one hand off of the box, the pink-skinned girl gestured to where her sizable chest was pressing into her thighs. "Who the hell makes your sports bras? Because after seeing the before and after, I'm jealous as hell, girl."

"You'll have to make nice with Yaoyorozu then. This thing is literally the best compression that she could imagine. I'm half convinced it violates the laws of material sciences, and quite possibly physics to boot." Carol glanced down at her own sizable assets for a moment before raising an eyebrow. "Seeing as how I'm bigger... if yours are getting in the way of a better result, can I get away with claiming mine are keeping me from coming in first on this test?"

After pondering that for a moment, Mina shrugged. "I mean, you can if you want. It's not the truth, but if it makes you feel better..."

Eh. Carol was proud of her abilities but not that proud. She'd let Mina have her well earned victory.

* * *

**Test Eight: Long-Distance Run**

Humming to herself, Carol floated along through the air using her powers, pantomiming the backstroke as she kept pace with the softly puffing Yaoyorozu. Looking over at the taller girl, she smirked. "I can do this all day. Your legs are going to get tired eventually. There's no shame in second place, you know that, right?"

Yaoyorozu continued to puff softly with exertion as she narrowed her eyes at Carol. "Everyone's quirk has a limit. You're no different. You've been using your powers all afternoon to place near the top of each test. You'll run out of energy soon. I've just got to outlast you."

"I've been training to use these powers since around when you started walking." Before that, actually; fifteen years ago would have put Carol smack dab in the center of the Second Kree-Skrull Conflict, by which point she'd already had very firm command of her Tesseract-given powers. But telling the truth would mean revealing some things about herself that the blonde was by no means ready to have known. "Besides, I'm not the only one who's been using her quirk all day. That cannon for the softball throw was impressive, to say the least. Although I'm not sure I would have gone with as fancy of a bike as you did for this event; the more you have to put into your creations, the more you take out of yourself."

Pedaling faster, Yaoyorozu slowly surpassed Carol... for all of a few seconds before the blonde increased her own speed to catch up. "Second place is just first loser. I am the scion of the Yaoyorozu clan! I was meant for greatness! I will persevere!"

* * *

"By the way, I was lying about the expulsion. It was a rational deception to draw out the upper limits of your Quirks."

As Carol stared at Aizawa in disbelief, there was a condescending sniff from next to her. "Of course that was a lie." She turned to look at Yaoyorozu, the dark-haired girl shaking her head in disbelief. "It should've been obvious if you just thought it through."

Aizawa shrugged off the class's disbelieving exclamations, turning to head back toward the main school building. "With that, we're done here. There are handouts with the syllabus and such in the classroom so when you get back, look over them." Pausing, he rummaged around in his pocket for a moment before pulling out a piece of paper, handing it to Midoriya who took it gingerly with his damaged right hand. "Oh, and Midoriya. Have the old lady fix you in the nurse's office. Tomorrow will be packed with even more rigorous tests. Prepare yourself."

So wait, they were done for the day? Carol blinked owlishly. Granted the assessment test had taken up some time, but it was still earlier in the day then her American high school had let out. And weren't Japanese schools supposed to be even more rigorous and demanding? The blonde shook her head. Far be it from her to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Hey Yaoyorozu, I don't have any plans until Yu's patrols finish at six. You want to go grab something to eat? Maybe hit the mall?"

"I... would not be averse to either of those ideas."

"Awesome! Hey Mina! Frogger! Food and mall! You in?"


End file.
